Queens of All the Earth - Softcover

Sternberg, Hannah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1610880323 ISBN 13: 9781610880329

Publisher: Bancroft Press, 2011

Synopsis

As her freshman classmates move into dorms at Cornell University, Olivia Somerset suffers a nervous breakdown. Big sister Miranda decides the sisters should fly off to Barcelona for some vacation therapy. When a mistake at their Barcelona hostel leaves the Somersets in a large co-ed dorm room, Olivia and Miranda are saved by kindly Mr. Brown and his son Greg. But while Olivia feels an instant connection with brooding Greg Brown, Miranda sides with fellow guest and cocky American travel writer Lenny—the Browns are just plain weird, and must be avoided at all costs. Inspired by E. M. Forster's classic novel A Room with a View, debut author Hannah Sternberg's Queens of All the Earth is a poetic journey of young love and self-awakening set against the beauty of Catalonia. Adults and teenagers alike will be riveted and moved by this literary coming-of-age novel about the conflicting hearts and minds of two very different sisters.

About this title

About the Author:

Though only 22, Hannah Sternberg has had extensive experience writing both fiction and nonfiction. In 2009, she received a B.A. in Film and Media Studies and Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University, which she attended on a full scholarship. She's been published in the Hopkins student literary magazine, the student newspaper, and the JHU Film Society's annual journal. She had an article published in The Weekly Standard magazine, and several of her articles on film adaptations of books have appeared in The Historical Novels Review. Before college, she won honorable mention in a national playwriting contest. Born in Baltimore and raised between there, Rutland, VT, and Lancaster, PA, Hannah currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. Queens of all the Earth is her first published novel.

Review:

Sternberg takes a charming and still-popular classic and retells it with grit and soul, making it not only relevant but compelling for today's young readers. --Susanne Dunlap, author of the YA novel The Musician's Daughter, a Bank Street Children's Book of the Year

Lyric-like in the writing style, Hannah Sternberg's Queens of All Earth was completely addicting. Perfect for the YA audience, the story of Olivia, a girl battling what she doesn't like to refer to as depression, will relate to many teens and adults alike, myself included . . . The story has a new ring to it that I have yet to see in the YA genre. (And I read many a book...) Set in Barcelona, the adventure of sisters Olivia and Miranda is an unforgettable one. Throw in a cute boy, Greg; his calm father Emory; and you've got a story to read again and again. --Book Heist

There was a wonderful languid pace to this book that drew me right in, willing Olivia and Greg to be able to enjoy their holiday romance, and getting totally lost in Hannah Sternberg's wonderful depiction of Barcelona. It's a bit of a cliche to say: ''It really feels like you are there, smelling the smells, feeling the breeze in your hair, and watching the hills drift past your coach window.'' But that is exactly what it's like. And the slower pace of the storytelling suits the atmosphere just perfectly. I really liked this one. It'd be the perfect read for a late-spring/early-summer Sunday afternoon in the garden. --Bart's Bookshelf

About this edition

• Publisher: Bancroft Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1610880323
• ISBN 13: 9781610880329
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160