The Night Journal
Elizabeth Crook
Feb 2006 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Kimberly Farr
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17 hr 56 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
A brilliantly imagined, lavish, and transporting novel of a young woman's search for the truth about her family's mythic past. . .
Meg Mabry has spent her life with her back turned to her legendary family legacy. In the 1890s her great-grandmother Hannah Bass composed starkly revealing diaries of her life on the southwestern frontier, first as a Harvey Girl at the glamorous Montezuma Resort in New Mexico and later as the wife of brilliant, and often-absent, railway engineer Eliott Bass. A generation later, Hannah's daughter, Claudia Bass, renowned historian known to all as Bassie, staked her academic career and reputation on these vibrant accounts, editing and publishing them to great acclaim. Thanks to the journals and the to the industry Bassie created around them, Hannah would forever be one of the most romantic and famous figures of southwestern history.
Meg, however–Bassie's granddaughter–finds the family lore oppressive. When an excavation on the old Bass family property beckons a now-elderly and viper-tongued Bassie back to the fabled land of her childhood, Meg only grudgingly consents to accompany her. Determined not to live under the shadow of her ancestry, Meg has never even read the journals. But when an unexpected discovery casts doubt on the history recorded in their pages and harbored in Bassie's memories, Meg finally succumbs to the allure of her great-grandmother's story and ventures even deeper into Hannah's life to unlock the mystery at the journal's core.
THE NIGHT JOURNAL is an enthralling tale in which native ruins, majestic desert hotels, and the hardship and boldness of frontier life fit seamlessly with a modern-day story of coming to terms with loss, family secrets, and shattering truths that lie shrouded in memory.
Meg Mabry has spent her life with her back turned to her legendary family legacy. In the 1890s her great-grandmother Hannah Bass composed starkly revealing diaries of her life on the southwestern frontier, first as a Harvey Girl at the glamorous Montezuma Resort in New Mexico and later as the wife of brilliant, and often-absent, railway engineer Eliott Bass. A generation later, Hannah's daughter, Claudia Bass, renowned historian known to all as Bassie, staked her academic career and reputation on these vibrant accounts, editing and publishing them to great acclaim. Thanks to the journals and the to the industry Bassie created around them, Hannah would forever be one of the most romantic and famous figures of southwestern history.
Meg, however–Bassie's granddaughter–finds the family lore oppressive. When an excavation on the old Bass family property beckons a now-elderly and viper-tongued Bassie back to the fabled land of her childhood, Meg only grudgingly consents to accompany her. Determined not to live under the shadow of her ancestry, Meg has never even read the journals. But when an unexpected discovery casts doubt on the history recorded in their pages and harbored in Bassie's memories, Meg finally succumbs to the allure of her great-grandmother's story and ventures even deeper into Hannah's life to unlock the mystery at the journal's core.
THE NIGHT JOURNAL is an enthralling tale in which native ruins, majestic desert hotels, and the hardship and boldness of frontier life fit seamlessly with a modern-day story of coming to terms with loss, family secrets, and shattering truths that lie shrouded in memory.
About the author
Elizabeth Crook was born in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Rice University in 1982. She has written four novels: The Raven's Bride, which was the 2006 Texas Reads One Book selection; Promised Lands; The Night Journal, winner of the 2007 Spur Award for Best Western Long Novel and the 2007 Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction; and Monday, Monday, which was awarded the 2015 Jesse H. Jones award for fiction. Elizabeth has written for periodicals such as Texas Monthly and the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. She is a member of Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America, and the Philosophical Society of Texas, and was selected the honored writer for 2006 Texas Writers' Month.
Kimberly Farr has appeared on Broadway, at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, and the American Place. She created the role of Eve in Arthur Miller's first and only musical, Up from Paradise, which was directed by the author. She appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Lady from the Sea. She has also acted in regional theaters from Los Angeles to New Haven, Connecticut, including the original production of The 1940's Radio Hour at Washington, DC's Arena Stage.
Kimberly Farr has appeared on Broadway, at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, and the American Place. She created the role of Eve in Arthur Miller's first and only musical, Up from Paradise, which was directed by the author. She appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Lady from the Sea. She has also acted in regional theaters from Los Angeles to New Haven, Connecticut, including the original production of The 1940's Radio Hour at Washington, DC's Arena Stage.
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