Allegra Gordon knew there was much she could learn from Faith Hale. From the moment she met the esteemed writer and feminist icon on the campus of New York's Abigail Stone College, Allegra understood that Faith would be a force in her life, one that would wrench the best work from her and encourage her to lay her soul bare. The relationship that evolved would simultaneously be the most liberating and most shattering Allegra ever encountered. And it would change both women in profound ways. From political rallies in the early seventies to soaring tributes at the turn of the twenty-first century, from confidences betrayed to liberties taken to freedoms denied, from a cottage in Maine to stone buildings in Manhattan to a farmhouse in Vermont, here is a story of women's lives unfurled and of a friendship at once impossible and eternal.
Leora Skolkin-Smith was born in Manhattan in 1952 and spent her childhood between Pound Ridge, New York, and Israel, traveling with her family to her mother's birthplace in Jerusalem every three years. Edges, her first novel, won the 2008 Earphones Award for an original audio production narrated by Tovah Feldshuh. It is currently in preproduction as a feature film titled, The Fragile Mistress, produced by Triboro Pictures. She is also the author of the novel Hystera, which won a Global E-book Award and was a finalist for an International Book Award and an Indie Excellence Award. Stealing Faith is her third novel.
"Skolkin-Smith (Edges: O Israel, O Palestine) spins a resonant, beautifully told coming-of-age story focusing on feminism, mental health, and grief . . . With two flawed and complex women coming to full life on the pages, this is an emotional story that is raw and revelatory, digging deep into the complexities these two face within themselves, each other, and in society. Takeaway: A raw and gripping novel of obsession, connection, and a feminist awakening in the 1970s."-- "Publishers Weekly" "Skolkin-Smith's prose is sharp and often surprising."-- "Kirkus Reviews" "What does it mean to be mentored by a genius who it turns out needs you as much as you need her? Skolkin has created an extraordinarily moving new novel, a cinematic page-turner about a young troubled writer's relationship with a literary icon and how they each end up impacting the other. Shimmering with insights about the literary world, creativity, friendship, power, illness, and the cost and fake glitter of fame, Stealing Faith is about what we truly need to become--and to help others become--our truest selves."--Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World
