The Very Secretive and Passionate Stella Miles Franklin

The first novel written about the enigmatic literary legend

“A pure delight.”—Elle

“Lapierre’s best novel so far.”—Le Nouvel Obs

Australia, 1901. Miles Franklin, the young daughter of poor bush farmers, manages to publish her first novel against all odds. A work of remarkable boldness and passion, it becomes an immense success in the English-speaking world. While she strives to maintain her anonymity under a male pseudonym, her identity is revealed and she is exposed to the misogynistic prejudices of her time.

Restless, indomitable, and unwilling to be silenced, Miles reinvents herself again and again across three continents. In Sydney, she pens a searing exposé of working women’s lives. In America, she throws herself into the suffrage movement. She volunteers with the Serbian Red Cross during the First World War, then joins the radical circles of 1920s Europe, sparring with critics and mingling with writers and artists.

She forges countless friendships, experiences magnificent loves, and, through it all, nurtures her passion for writing and her ambition for literary success. 

Guided by her generosity and sense of humor, Miles eventually returns to Australia, where she will deliver a final blow to the critics who proclaimed that her wit and her genius had dried up.