Maybe you have heard of William Herschel, renowned German composer
and astronomer. But it is unlikely you know much about Caroline Herschel, his
younger sister. She is the woman behind the man. She walked beside his
greatness with her own brilliance that catapulted his dreams and ideas to
discover, build and learn things that most deemed outrageous, if not completely
impossible in the mid 1700’s. William, whose mind worked at a frantic pace he
could not control taught Lina from a very young age about the stars, the sky
and the universe. It was unheard of for girls to study at this time so Lina
devoured this knowledge William patiently fed to her at every opportunity. As
an unattractive young girl in a small German village with no family financial
means, it was understood that Lina would lead a life of servitude. Her
unloving, bitter mother was both cruel and deceptive with her manipulations.
But lucky for Lina that William kept his promise and came back for her and
brought her to England to be his trusty assistant. Their life captured in this
magnificent historical novel is filled with the discovery of love as well as
stars. With absolutely no prior interest in astronomy I surprised even myself
as I devoured every word of this unputdownable work of fiction. Through much
research and the good fortune of journals and letters that have been preserved,
author Carrie Brown was able to treat us with the perfect combination of
accuracy and fiction that brought these amazing characters to life. Highly recommend
my reader friends!
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