It goes without saying here that the relationship between Martha Gellhorn (later to become a renowned war correspondent) and Hemingway, was a tumultuous one. Having read McLain's 'The Paris Wife', about Hemingway's first wife, and his own book about that period 'A Movable Feast', and now this one - I feel like I need to connect the dots. This book made me want to read Hemingway's biography in full!. It was Hemingway's most successful book to date, it sold half a million copies within months, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and triumphantly reestablished his literary reputation Read more Martha Gellhorn was one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th centuryįOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS was dedicated to Martha, and inspired by the time they were together in Spain. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart, and her own.

In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Hemingway made their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite.īut when Hemingway publishes the biggest literary success of his career, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the suffocating demands of a domestic lifestyle, or risk losing her husband by forging her way as her own woman and writer. She also finds herself unexpectedly - and uncontrollably - falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man already on his way to being a legend. In 1937, courageous and independent Martha Gellhorn travels to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, and finds herself drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict.

Love and ruin by paula mclain