Harvest by Belva Plain

Product Details

Synopsis

Harvest continues the story of the family of the wealthy Paul Werner, last met in Tapestry, also available in Bookcassette audio.

The novel centers around Iris, the daughter of the beautiful passionate Anna from a secret love affair with Paul Werner. During the turbulent 60s, Iris and Theo's fragile marriage begins to falter, while their son Steve, a student at a midwestern university, comes under the say of the charismatic and radical son of Paul Werner's niece, Meg.

It is in these already difficult times that Steve unwittingly starts a chain of events that throws the family into emotional chaos. Paul, consumed by a lifelong secret he will never divulge - that of Iris' true parentage - helps this trouble family, and in so doing is finally able to find happiness for himself.

Annotation

The internationally acclaimed author of Tapestry continues the magnificent Werner Family saga with this tumultuous and breathtaking novel. In the difficult times of the 1960s, a university student unwittingly precipitates a chain of events that spirals the Werner family downward with no forseeable end.

Publishers Weekly

With the rich threads of Evergreen , The Golden Cup and Tapestry , skillful storyteller Plain continues to weave her eventful saga of the Werners and their extended clan as they reaffirm their Jewish heritage during the stormy 1960s. Dark, sensitive Iris, daughter of the glowing, russet-haired Anna (by urbane banker Paul Werner--unbeknownst to Iris) is married to wealthy, improvident Dr. Theo Stern, whose European glamour excites other women. Iris's jealousy goads her to play at her own romance with a sinister partner. Her four children are growing up, but rebel Steve balks at his bar mitzvah, already anticipating the anarchist/bomb expert he will be at college, radicalized by cynical professor Tim Powers, whom he doesn't know is his distant cousin. When Paul's wife dies and his mistress leaves to fulfill her mission as a doctor in Israel, Paul hovers protectively over Iris's troubled family. A violent quarrel between Iris and Theo erupts into near tragedy, and Paul takes action. Plain's prose is never better than workmanlike, but the narrative moves quickly as her doughty characters surmount their alloted share of adversity. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; Reader's Digest Condensed Book. (Sept.)

Biography

Known for her dramatic love epics with vivid characterizations Belva Plain first entranced readers back in 1979 with the made-for-miniseries romance, Evergreen.