The Long Road Home - Softcover

Steel, Danielle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552145025 ISBN 13: 9780552145022

Publisher: Transworld Publishers, 1999

Synopsis

Gabriella Harrison is the daughter of New York aristocrats but has an abused and terrifying childhood. Peace is achieved in a nunnery for some time but again pain reappears with love for a young priest. Despite these torments she manages find forgiveness, freedom from guilt, and healing from abuse.

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Review

At age 6, our heroine, lovely Gabriella Harrison, a rich kid on Manhattan's Upper East Side, "looked startled much of the time, like an angel who had fallen to earth, and had not known what to expect here." What Gabriella gets is a mother like Lucifer and a father who slips out to sleep with Italian prostitutes while Mrs. Harrison is busy breaking Gabriella's spirit--and sometimes her bones. Gabby's tormentor makes the real-life moms in Mommie Dearest and Mommy Dressing look sweet.

Gabriella gets a better break when her parents divorce and dump her in a convent. She meets a sensitive, older man with a deep, dark secret, and pretty soon they've got some steamy erotic secrets in common.

Unfortunately, he's a priest, and troubles erupt that are too much for any confessional to contain. Soon Gabriella is living on the East Side again, only this time in Mrs. Boslicki's boarding house, where the richness in people's hearts makes up for their relative material poverty. A kindly, retired Harvard English professor resembling Einstein nags her into trying her hand and purging her demons as a writer. "When I say you have talent, young lady, I mean it," says Professor Thomas. "They didn't hire me at Harvard to grow bananas." Will Gabriella have the courage to confront her talent? Can she face her past at last, conquer the future, and land a man to share it? Hey, is this a Danielle Steel novel or not? --Tim Appelo

From the Inside Flap

From her secret perch at the top of the stairs, Gabriella Harrison watches the guests arrive at her parents' lavish Manhattan townhouse. At seven, she knows she is an intruder in her parents' party, in her parents' life. But she can't resist the magic. Later, she waits for the click, click, click of her mother's high heels, the angry words, and the pain that will follow. Gabriella already knows to hide her bruises, certain she is to blame for her mother's rage--and her father's failure to protect her.

Gabriella's only escape is through her stories. Only writing can dull the pain of her lonely world. And when her parents' marriage collapses, Gabriella is given her first reprieve, as her mother abandons her to a convent. There, Gabriella's battered body and soul begin to mend. And there, amid the quiet safety and hushed rituals of the nuns, Gabriella becomes a woman. Then a young priest comes into her life.

Joe Connors never questioned his vocation until Gabriella entered the confessional and shared her soul. Confession leads to friendship. And friendship grows dangerously into love. Like Gabriella, Joe is haunted by the pain of his childhood, consumed by guilt over a family heartbreak. With Gabriella, Joe takes the first steps toward healing. But their relationship leads to tragedy as Joe must choose between the priesthood and Gabriella, and life in the real world where he fears he does not belong.

With profound insight, Danielle Steel has created a vivid portrait of a child's broken world and a woman's unbreakable spirit. A work of daring and compassion, The Long Road Home is more than riveting fiction. It's an inspiration to us all.

About this edition

• Publisher: Transworld Publishers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0552145025
• ISBN 13: 9780552145022
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 475