Fiction based on real figures in history is a fraught field. Hilary Mantel pulled it off with Wolf Hall, told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, an adviser to England's King Henry VIII.
Success hinges not just on quality of research but also the writer's ability to bring characters to life.
McLain takes on an ambitious project: little- known Hadley Richardson, first wife of Ernest
Hemingway, the early 20th-century American writer of classics such as The Sun Also Rises, not to mention war hero and Great White Hunter of beasts and beauty (four wives, numerous lovers).
Hadley who? You well might ask.
