Aurora Greenway is the kind of woman who makes the world turn around her - including her string of devoted suitors. Widowed, Aurora has an infant daughter, Emma, of whom she is at first overprotective. As Emma grows up, the relationship between mother and daughter is full of tension and disagreement - not least over Emma's choice of husband, who Aurora disapproves of. Then, with the devastating discovery that Emma has cancer, Aurora slowly learns to adapt and compromise. THE AUTHOR Larry McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1936. His father and eight uncles were all ranchers. McMurtry earned a masters degree from Rice University in 1960 and quickly rose to international fame as a premier American writer. In 1986 he won the Pulitzer Prize for LONESOME DOVE. He lives in Texas.