Stepping From the Shadows

*Stepping from the Shadows* depicts the subtle and elusive transformation of a child into a woman—a woman, in this instance, gifted as a writer.

Frances Stuart is first encountered as a shy and remote young girl, wrestling with the emergence of her own identity and the power of her vivid and unruly imagination. At once to protect herself and to deal, in some way, with the creative forces within her, Frances has invented a shadow person, a storyteller who accompanies her through adolescence and beyond. As Frances's life unfolds—against the Arizona desert, in small towns in England and Germany, on a campus in California—so her shadow copes with her experiences—particularly the awakening of her sexual feeling—weaving them into a compelling and symbolic tale, drawing Frances away from the real world she has only begun to taste.

Just how Frances resolves her deepening conflict is revealed in this sharply observed story, in which the way is paved for the woman who finally steps from her shadow, accepting the inner voice she has not dared to own.