Skip to content
Pages
433
Published
1982
Language
English

Synopsis

Crossings is a standalone novel by Danielle Steel, first published in 1982 by Delacorte Press.

On the eve of the Second World War, Liane de Villiers sails from Europe with her husband Armand, a French diplomat whose loyalties and secrets she does not fully know. Aboard the ship she meets Nick Burnham, an American steel magnate travelling with a wife who despises him and a son he adores. The crossing throws Liane and Nick together, and the attachment formed in those few days follows both of them into the war.

The novel moves between France and America across the war years, with the Atlantic voyages that give the book its title marking each turn of the story. Steel writes the conflict of love, marriage and wartime duty against a real historical backdrop — occupied France, the Resistance, the American home front — and the price each character pays for the side they take.

Vibe

About the author

D
Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel — born Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel on 14 August 1947 in New York City — is an American novelist, best known for her best-selling romance fiction. The only child of John Schuelein-Steel and Norma da Câmara Stone dos Reis, she was raised in Paris and New York after her parents divorced, graduated from the Lycée Français at fifteen, and went on to study at the Parsons School of Design and New York University. Her first novel, Going Home, was published in 1973. As of...

Characters

Liane de VilliersProtagonist

An American woman married to a French diplomat, torn between her marriage and the man she meets at sea.

Nick BurnhamProtagonist

An American steel magnate in an unhappy marriage, devoted to his young son.

Hillary BurnhamAntagonist

Nick's contemptuous, unfaithful wife.

Armand de VilliersSupporting

Liane's husband, a French diplomat whose wartime work he cannot explain to her.

All characters in Crossings