The women - T. Coraghessan Boyle

In a rural backwater in Wisconsin lies the rambling estate ofTaliesin. Here, tempestuous affairs rage behind closed doors, brokenhearts are tossed aside and fires have ripped through the wings of thehouse. Paparazzi lie in wait outside the front door, hounding for thelatest scandal, the latest tragedy in this never-ending drama. For thisis the home of the great architect of the twentieth century, FrankLloyd Wright, a man of extremes in both his work and his private life:at once a force of nature - arrogant and infuriating - and an avalancheof need and emotion that sweeps aside everything in its path.

This is the story of the wives and mistresses who fall underFrank's spell. There is the delusional Kitty, his first wife, convincedthat his affair with the defiant Mamah can't possibly last. There isMiriam, his crazed, demented second wife, hell-bent on wreaking revengemost public and most vicious after the bitter demise of their marriage.And there is Oglivanna, the Serbian immigrant, who waits with Frank inconstant terror for the next wave of desolation from Miriam as shestalks them at every turn, unleashing a torrent of sheriffs,immigration officials, bankers, lawyers and journalists.

Sharp, savage and subtle in equal measure, The Womenplumbs the chaos, horrors and uncontainable passions of a fascinating American icon.