White Houses

A Novel

By: Amy Bloom

Narrated by: Tonya Cornelisse

For readers of The Paris Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue comes a “sensuous, captivating account of a forbidden affair between two women” (People)—Eleanor Roosevelt and “first friend” Lorena Hickok.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Financial Times • San Francisco Chronicle • New York Public Library • Refinery29 • Real Simple

Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, “Hick,” as she’s known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have. She moves into the White House, where her status as “first friend” is an open secret, as are FDR’s own lovers. After she takes a job in the Roosevelt administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to know Franklin not only as a great president but as a complicated rival and an irresistible friend, capable of changing lives even after his death. Through it all, even as Hick’s bond with Eleanor is tested by forces both extraordinary and common, and as she grows as a woman and a writer, she never loses sight of the love of her life.

From Washington, D.C. to Hyde Park, from a little white house on Long Island to an apartment on Manhattan’s Washington Square, White Houses moves elegantly through fascinating places and times, written in compelling prose and with emotional depth, wit, and acuity.

Critic reviews

“[Amy] Bloom deftly explores what might have been in this novel about the real romance between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. . . . It’s a sensuous, captivating account of a forbidden affair between two women, one of them viewed by all the world as a saint.”—People

“‘All fires go out,’ Hickok says, explaining her lingering feelings to Franklin. ‘It doesn’t mean that we don’t still want to sit by the fireplace, I guess.’ In White Houses, Bloom has built up exactly the sort of blaze that will draw readers to linger.”—Time

“Vivid and tender . . . Bloom—interweaving fact and fancy—lavishes attention on [Lorena Hickok], bringing Hick, the novel’s narrator and true subject, to radiant life.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“[An] irresistibly audacious re-creation of the love affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena ‘Hick’ Hickok . . . Bloom convincingly weaves tender romance with hard-boiled reality. . . . Bloom notes that the White House staff routinely cropped Hickok out of photos. In White Houses, she’s in the center of the frame, and nobody who reads this sad, funny, frisky novel is going to forget her.”—USA Today

“Radiant . . . an indelible love story, one propelled not by unlined youth and beauty but by the kind of soul-mate connection even distance, age, and impossible circumstances couldn’t dim . . . Bloom’s goal is less to relitigate history than to portray the blandly sexless figurehead of First Lady as something the job rarely allows those women to be—a loving, breathing human being. And she does it brilliantly.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Steeped with open secrets, intimate tension, and historical truths, [White Houses] expertly portrays the kaleidoscopic forms womanhood can take.”—New York

“Profoundly affecting . . . Bloom’s Hick is frank, funny, and irreverent. . . . White Houses, by seeing the Roosevelt era through the most unlikely of outsiders-turned-insider, brings a hidden chapter of East Wing history to life.”—The Boston Globe

“A remarkably intimate and yet informative novel of the secret, scandalous love of Eleanor Roosevelt and her longtime friend and companion Lorena Hickok, who relates the tale in her own, quite wonderful voice.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“Amy Bloom illuminates one of the most intriguing relationships in history. Lorena Hickok is a woman who found love with another lost soul, Eleanor Roosevelt. And love is what this book is all about: It suffuses every page, so that by the time you reach the end, you are simply stunned by the beauty of the world these two carved out for themselves.”—Melanie Benjamin, author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue

A Great Story

I was a little doubtful about this audiobook because of some of the reviews, but I should not have been. It is a novel I will never forget, well written and the narration fits the story beautifully.

Beautiful

this book was so beautiful that it made me cry. I fell in love with both of these women and I didn't want the book to end.

Beautiful story

I feel at times it was difficult to follow. Its written jumping back and forth through time and has some tangents, but overall it is a beautiful story.

A very subtle love story

The reader threw me off at first hard to engage. However, I think that the reader captured the essence of her character. It was a great story, left a lot of information or holes in the story, but it came across beautifully written.

Great read: not a great listen

I began listening to this audiobook while on a car trip, but my husband took an immediate dislike to the narrator. It was not until after I had finished actually READing the book, and liking it very much, that I went back to the audio version. I found that I could barely stand to listen to the voice actor's version of Hick's cigarette smoke-graveled voice. Unfortunate.