THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A glittering depiction of a woman ahead of her time who absolutely refused to be second best' Red Alva Smith, her Southern family destitute after the Civil War, marries into one of America's great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York's old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designs and builds nine ...