laurie lico albanese
Laurie Lico Albanese's most recent novel, Hester, is a vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials. She is also the author of four other books; Stolen Beauty, Blue Suburbia: Almost a Memoir, Lynelle By The Sea, and The Miracles of Prato. She has been published in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Her travel and general-interest pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Mothering, Coastal Living and many other periodicals.
Laurie is now working on her next novel.
PRAISE FOR Hester
"A standout historical… Even those unfamiliar with the classic will be hooked by this account of a capable woman standing up to the sexist and racial prejudices of her time." ––Publishers Weekly
"Albanese’s novel will engage readers seeking racial themes, a resilient heroine, and a feminist origin story for one of America’s always relevant nineteenth-century classics." ––Booklist
“This thoughtfully researched tale shines a light on the barriers faced by 19th-century women who did not conform.” - The Washington Post
"A hauntingly beautiful --- and imagined --- origin story to The Scarlet Letter." --- People Magazine
“Even those unfamiliar with the classic will be hooked by this account of a capable woman standing up to the sexist and racial prejudices of her time."
— Starred Publisher’s Weekly Review
“A masterpiece that should be required reading alongside Hawthorne’s classic tale of adultery. Enthralling, ambitions, and a total knockout.”
—Fiona David, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia Palace and The Lions of Fifth Avenue
“Hester is a vividly reimagined portrayal of the tragic heroine in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Full of lush and colorful prose, Hester proves that a woman will do whatever she must to prosper, even when she is left with nothing but courage—and a few secrets of her own.”
—Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary
“A rich tapestry of a novel. In dreamlike yet vivid prose, Albanese weaves a story about 19th century Salem, a place with a dark history where secrets still abound, and conjures the life of Hawthorne’s muse, a woman whose skill and imagination are both the key to her survival and the source of others’ mistrust and envy. Vivid, complex and intricately detailed.”
—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Laurie Lico Albanese has constructed a novel whose themes are at the heart of the so-called New World: Freedom and Unfreedom. At every turn of the plot, there is the conflict of privilege versus the lack, freedom or unfreedom. The reader is quickly enveloped in the familiar story of Salem, Massachusetts and its Witchcraft Trials, but the narrative is much more complex than the usual stereotypical witchcraft tale. Audacious and very entertaining, I truly enjoyed reading HESTER.
—Breena Clarke, author of the Oprah selection, River, Cross My Heart
“This page-turning and poignant novel beautifully imagines the untold life story of the woman who went down in literary history wearing a scarlet letter.”
—Alice Elliot Dark, author of In the Gloaming
“The diverse women at the heart of The Crucible, the Salem witch trials, and The Scarlet Letter at last get their say—in full throated technicolor. A luminous blend of fiction and truth, with an extraordinarily gifted heroine at its center, Hester weaves together a spellbinding tapestry of Salem history as it has never been told before.”
—Afia Atakora, author of Conjure Women
Book of the Month Club pick for October, 2022
Amazon editor pick for October, 2022
Named a Most Anticipated Book for Fall by Goodreads and New York Post
An October Indie Next List Pick
An October Library Reads Pick
PRAISE FOR STOLEN BEAUTY
“[W]ith her opening sentence Albanese draws readers into a world of glamour, art, intrigue, power and fear. . . . In this complex and utterly readable novel, historical characters are brought to life against the setting of a city on the verge of artistic greatness and societal collapse.”
— STARRED, Library Journal
"Stolen Beauty is a work of art itself."
— Wall Street Journal
"It is a testament to Albanese’s skills as a storyteller that a familiar story gains new power in her telling."
— USA Today
"Best read with a tablet or computer handy to study the paintings, Albanese’s novel will appeal to readers interested in such themes as love, self-discovery, and women’s empowerment and to fans of the historical, art-based fiction of Susan Vreeland and Tracy Chevalier.”
— Booklist
"Fans of romantic suspense with an art historical bent will appreciate the vigor of Albanese's reimagining of the family saga behind the masterpiece long regarded as Vienna's Mona Lisa."
— Kirkus
“This sensual and mesmerizing novel brings to vivid life Gustav Klimt and his greatest muse and model, Adele Bloch-Bauer. For fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Paula McLain’s Circling the Sun, Stolen Beauty is a must-read. I tore through the pages.”
— Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
“Laurie Lico Albanese has given us a powerful and important tale of love and war, art and family. Filled with lush prose and vivid historical detail, Stolen Beauty is a work simultaneously intimate and sweeping in its scope. I was transported.”
— Allison Pataki, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sisi: Empress on Her Own
“Courage and beauty are the banners waving over the double heroines of this truth-telling novel. Like the paintings of Klimt, Stolen Beauty both glitters and darkens in its presentation of vibrant life and dreadful death.”
— Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife and Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette
