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The heartbreaking story of the love of two women - Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine - from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder. 'Donoghue conjures a whole new world' - The Observer In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet. Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society's expectations of what a woman can do. As they fall in love, the connection they forge will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Full of passion and heartbreak, evocative and wholly unique, Learned by Heart is the dazzling novel from acclaimed author Emma Donoghue.
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Written with love, about love, but I didn't think the framing device of the future Raine writing to Lister provided enough momentum. There was no real catalyst to move the story along.