The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters

Olivia Hunt's Hollywood life has come to a grinding halt. A hotshot producer accustomed to first-class amenities, Olivia has just been unceremoniously fired after her last movie tanked. Her boyfriend, Michael, has dumped her. And she's not the blonde she used to be: dark roots are coming in at an alarming rate. Her next project is a well-crafted suicide note.

Then she finds out what real trouble is. Olivia's beloved sister, Maddie, is seriously ill. Maddie is living the life Olivia ran like hell from — she's happily married to her high school sweetheart and still living in the small town where they grew up. Stunned and bewildered, Olivia catches the next plane back home.

Maddie's idealism and optimism have always driven Olivia crazy. Even now, when the odds aren't good, Maddie never doubts she'll beat them. But Olivia wonders, is hope just a way of kidding yourself? As if to answer that question, Maddie challenges Olivia to produce her dream film, the impossible-to-make Don Quixote. Olivia's life then becomes a tangle of movie sets, IV drips, and letters to Michael asking him what went wrong and if they might try again. When Maddie takes a turn for the worse, Olivia has to face the hardest choices life can offer. How can one person's heart so truly be in three places at once?

Imbued with all the love one sister can feel for another — and all the frustration too — The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters is heartbreaking and hilarious, somber and delightful, and full of wisdom, joy, and grace. It is a brilliantly written debut about the unlimited possibilities of love and how hope can grow in even the darkest places.

"[A] wrenching, tragicomic first novel....Moving but never maudlin, this is an accomplished debut." Publishers Weekly

"It's bright, it's clever, and it's going to be a major hit....Robinson is enormously skilled at pushing the emotional buttons, but an aftertaste of manipulation lingers." Kirkus Reviews

"[T]here are moments when The Hunt Sisters can feel uncomfortably like a big-screen tear-jerker....But...The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters is finally wryly effective." Emily Nussbaum, The New York Times Book Review

"[A] moving, engaging debut novel....Sparkling with humor and beauty." Booklist

The bestselling status (and subsequent blockbuster film adaptations) of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" is proof of the enduring strength of this category. Although the novel is invented, Robinson is a successful Hollywood producer whose credits include "Braveheart" and "Last Orders."

- Appeared on bestseller lists nationwide, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, and Book Sense, lists.
- Now in its third hardcover printing, with 132,000 copies sold.
- A top ten Book Sense selection.
- Hardcover

Elisabeth Robinson is an independent producer and screenwriter whose film credits include the award-winning films Braveheart and Last Orders. This is her first novel. She lives in New York.