Rust & Stardust - by T Greenwood (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A harrowing, ripped-from-the-headlines story of lives altered in the blink of an eye, once again proving her eloquence and dexterity as an author." --Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl

Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story, Rust & Stardust, from award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.

Camden, NJ, 1948. When Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth's, she's accosted by an FBI agent. Sally dutifully follows his orders, oblivious to a haunting reality: he's not an FBI agent. And he's going to kidnap her.

This gripping novel traces the next two harrowing years for Sally as she's held captive, forever altering her life and the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way as they travel from Camden to San Jose. Sally must overcome the impossible when all hope seems lost, waiting for the day she can return home and tell her story.

Review Quotes

Library Journal Best of 2018!

San Diego Book Award 2019 winner for Best Published Mystery/Suspense!

"Thoughtfully rendered." --Vanity Fair

"Chilling...a perfect read." --Bustle

"A beautifully written, unnerving tragedy woven from equal measures of hope and menace."
--Booklist (starred review)

"Heartrending....Readers who relish novels based on true events will be both riveted and disturbed by this retelling of one of America's most famous abduction cases." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Fast-moving....T. Greenwood has clearly done her research." --New York Review of Books

"Riveting suspense....Grace touches this dark tale....Greenwood's story will spellbind readers." --Publishers Weekly

"Enthralling...Wonderfully researched and written with stirring prose, Rust & Stardust is a gut-wrenching read." --Tulsa Book Review

"Well-written and heartbreaking." --Watertown Daily Times

"Unflinching but compassionate, Greenwood deftly unravels the devastating layers of malice and carelessness that tore Sally from her family, but also the love and perseverance that eventually brought her home." -- Bryn Greenwood, author of the New York Times bestseller All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

"Greenwood's glowing dark ruby of a novel brilliantly transforms the true crime story that inspired Nabokov's Lolita. Shatteringly original and eloquently written, Rust and Stardust is a lot about how what we believe to be true can shape or ruin a life, and the bright lure of innocence pitted against the murk of evil. So ferociously suspenseful, I found myself holding my breath, and so gorgeous and so unsettling in all the roads it might have taken, I kept rereading pages." --Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World

"A riveting and thoughtful exploration of how the dark secrets of a terrible crime affect and hurt so many--and how light and hope persist in the face of such horrors. Greenwood writes with such compassion and feeling, and she is such a confident, skillful storyteller, that you'll stay up late to find out the fates of her memorable, beautiful characters." --Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17

"A harrowing, ripped-from-the-headlines story of lives altered in the blink of an eye, once again proving her eloquence and dexterity as an author." --Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl

"A lyrical and haunting meditation on family, love, and survival, this novel--and Sally Horner--stayed with me long after I turned the last page." --Jillian Cantor, author of Margot

"Greenwood is unmatched in her innate ability to weave lush, poetic language into a riveting story that hooks the reader from page one." --Amy Hatvany, author of Best Kept Secret, and It Happens All the Time

About the Author

T. GREENWOOD's novels have sold over 300,000 copies. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. Her novel Bodies of Water was a 2014 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, and she is the recipient of four San Diego Book Awards. Keeping Lucy was a 2020 Target Book Club pick. Greenwood lives with her family in San Diego and Vermont.