A Woman of Substance

Barbara Taylor Bradford's debut novel is the kind of book people describe as impossible to put down and impossible to forget. Emma Harte's journey — from exploited servant girl in Yorkshire to the iron-handed builder of a global retail empire — spans wars, marriages, betrayals, and decades, all without losing momentum across more than 900 pages. Bradford's pacing is remarkable, and Emma is one of the defining characters of the twentieth-century women's saga. A necessary content note for this audience: the novel deals frankly with a young woman's sexual exploitation, infidelity, and adult moral complexity throughout. It is not a family read in the traditional sense, and parents should be aware. For adult readers who can engage those themes, this is a landmark work that earned every one of its 30 million copies.