Astray [Hardcover]

From theNew York Timesbestselling author ofRoomcomes a moving set of historical stories spanning centuries and continents.
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The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue's stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress.

With rich historical detail, the celebrated author ofRoomtakes us from puritan Massachusetts to revolutionary New Jersey, antebellum Louisiana to the Toronto highway, lighting up four centuries of wanderings that have profound echoes in the present.Astrayoffers us a surprising and moving history for restless times.

Born in Dublin in 1969,Emma Donoghueis an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature before moving to London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their two children. She also migrates between genres, writing literary history, biography, stage and radio plays as well as fairy tales and short stories.

She is best known for her novels, which range from the historical (Frog Music, Slammerkin,Life Mask,Landing,The Sealed Letter) to the contemporary (Akin, Stir-Fry,Hood,Landing). Her international bestsellerRoomwas aNew York TimesBest Book of 2010 and was a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes.