Yarrow McLean, a forceful and compelling woman, is the protagonist of Family Business, a novel that spans four generations of the McLean family. In the late nineteenth century Yarrow's grandfather, Jock McLean, went West to Colorado to cash in on the silver boom. He successfully traded his shares in a mine to acquire a one-third ownership of a small-town newspaper. In the 1930's, as the Depression threatened to destroy the Platte City Journal, Jock's son James, and then James's daughter Yarrow, learned every detail of running the business - details that Yarrow would later use in her own struggles to save her grandfather's paper and to compete at the pinnacle of American publishing, New York City.
While enduring the traumatic breakup of her marriage, raising her children, and scrutinizing the family infighting over who will control the Journal, Yarrow struggles to balance her own drive for power with her relentless love for Elliot Weyden, a man with whom she grew up and who has become the greatest influence in her life. He is brash, determined, and unwilling to compromise to get what he wants...and his goal is the presidency. As he makes the decision to run - or not to run - Yarrow becomes his key advisor and is forced to examine the close ties between politics and daily journalism.
Yarrow's odyssey takes her through the world of international communications from Colorado to New York to London - all told against the backdrop of the Depression, World War II, and the dramatic political events since. When personal considerations force Yarrow's hand, we are provided with a dramatic and startling conclusion. Anna Murdoch has surpassed herself in this stunning effort, creating a character who will remain indelible in the reader's mind as a fiercely determined woman of remarkable breadth and power.
While enduring the traumatic breakup of her marriage, raising her children, and scrutinizing the family infighting over who will control the Journal, Yarrow struggles to balance her own drive for power with her relentless love for Elliot Weyden, a man with whom she grew up and who has become the greatest influence in her life. He is brash, determined, and unwilling to compromise to get what he wants...and his goal is the presidency. As he makes the decision to run - or not to run - Yarrow becomes his key advisor and is forced to examine the close ties between politics and daily journalism.
Yarrow's odyssey takes her through the world of international communications from Colorado to New York to London - all told against the backdrop of the Depression, World War II, and the dramatic political events since. When personal considerations force Yarrow's hand, we are provided with a dramatic and startling conclusion. Anna Murdoch has surpassed herself in this stunning effort, creating a character who will remain indelible in the reader's mind as a fiercely determined woman of remarkable breadth and power.
