This is the story of a marriage. Or, perhaps, of how a good marriage ends. It is also the story of a place and of an era. In this work of fiction, Ernest Hemingway is a struggling but ambitious writer trying to scratch a living from his freelance journalism when he meets Hadley. She is depicted as somewhat of a lost soul, with few prospects for anything other than a comfortable, middle class existence. It seems an unlikely union, until we realize that Hadley’s true passion is for her husband, so that she becomes his principal devotee, providing the kind of reliable emotional and financial support that encourages him to risk everything for his writing.

Hadley helps make it possible for Ernest to live in Paris between the wars, when it attracted such people as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, amongst others. It is an old-fashioned view of marriage, one that is not much challenged by McLain, but it is difficult to resist the pull that Hadley’s perspective provides, so that we too become enthralled by Ernest, by where his ambitions take him, and by his complicated, passionate friendships.

This is a thoroughly researched novel that will appeal to readers of biography as much as readers of fiction. Despite a somewhat unadventurous prose style, I loved it and recommend it highly. For Hemingway’s take on his time in Paris try A Moveable Feast.

Bruno Moro is manager of Readings Malvern.