Sacramento writer Mark Wiederanders’ novel “Stevenson’s Treasure” is about “Treasure Island” author Robert Louis Stevenson’s wild dash to California in 1879 to court the love of his life, Fanny Osbourne, an American he met in France. Unfortunately, Fanny was already (unhappily) married to a well-known San Francisco citizen with whom she had two children. Young Stevenson, unknown at the time, risked everything on his high-stakes, scandalous journey: rejection by his parents, financial ruin, loss of friends and life itself (having bad lungs, at least twice his California journey took him close to death).
Wiederanders joins us to talk about the book ahead of an appearance at Face in A Book bookstore Friday. He’ll also be at the Avid Reader in Sacramento June 7.