The Triumph of Katie Byrne by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Barbara Taylor Bradford . Unknown Year . English
Barbara Taylor Bradford delivers all the drama, suspense, and romance her readers expect in a riveting novel that begins with a murder in an old Connecticut barn… We first meet Katie Byrne at seventeen. A tall beauty with reddish-gold hair, she has always wanted to be an actress. Her two best friends share her passion for the theatre, and the three girls have spent much of their childhood rehearsing plays in an old barn in Connecticut. Leaving early one day to help her mother prepare dinner, Katie realizes she has left her schoolbooks at the barn and she and her older brother return to retrieve them. When they arrive, they find the barn, the setting of so many happy dreams, has become the scene of a nightmare: one of Katie's friends has been raped and murdered, and the other lies unconscious. Ten years later, Katie, a struggling actress in New York, is still haunted by the tragedy. Her friend Carly remains in a coma, and Katie desperately wants to achieve success and stardom not only for herself but also for her two old friends. Her big chance comes when she is discovered and wins a major role in a Broadway play. But Katie must face the demons of the past before she can embrace the possibilities of the future…
Categories: Literary Fiction
About the Author
Barbara Taylor Bradford, OBE, is one of the world's best loved storytellers. Her 1979 debut novel, A Woman of Substance, ranks as one of the top-ten bestselling books of all-time, with more than 30 million copies in print. All her novels to date have been major worldwide bestsellers. Barbara was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, the only child of Freda and Winston Taylor. She grew up in the Leeds suburb of Armley and left school at 15 for the typing pool at the Yorkshire Evening Post. At 16 she was a reporter, and at 18 she became the paper’s first woman’s page editor. By the time she was 20, she had moved to London where she became a fashion editor and columnist on Fleet Street. Barbara started writing fiction when she was just seven, and sold her first short story to a magazine for seven shillings and sixpence when she was ten years old. Barbara’s books have sold more than 91 million copies worldwide in more than 90 countries and 40 languages. Ten of her books were made into Emmy-nominated miniseries and television movies by her late husband, the film producer Robert Bradford. In 2007, Barbara was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her contributions to literature. A passionate supporter of literacy, she is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust; in 2019 she was made an ambassador for Women in Journalism and in the same year she was presented with The Leeds Award, which recognised her loyalty to, and depiction of, her Yorkshire roots. Her original manuscripts are archived at the Brotherton Library at Leeds University, alongside the works of the Bronte sisters. She lives in New York City.
