This Real Night

Book excerpt: In the second installment of Rebecca West’s Saga of the Century trilogy, Rose Aubrey, her sisters, and her cousin stand on the brink of adulthood and a new era for women They have put down their schoolbooks and put up their hair, but a talented musician and her kin ponder what being a young woman on one’s own will entail. Abandoned by their feckless father, Rose and her family must move beyond their comfortable drawing room to discover a world of kind patrons, music teachers, and concert hall acclaim, but also domestic strife, anti-Semitism, and social pressure to marry. Set before World War I, Rebecca West’s intimate, eloquent family portrait brings to life a time when women recognized their own voices and the joys of living off one’s own talents.