The Dream Daughter
Diane Chamberlain, 2018
St. Martin's Press
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250087300
Summary
A thrilling, mind-bending novel about one mother's journey to save her child.
When Carly Sears, a young woman widowed by the Vietnam war, receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated.
It is 1970, and she is told that nothing can be done to help her child. But her brother-in-law, a physicist with a mysterious past, tells her that perhaps there is a way to save her baby.
What he suggests is something that will shatter every preconceived notion that Carly has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage she never knew existed. Something that will mean an unimaginable leap of faith on Carly's part.
And all for the love of her unborn child.
The Dream Daughter is a rich, genre-spanning, breathtaking novel about one mother's quest to save her child, unite her family, and believe in the unbelievable. Diane Chamberlain pushes the boundaries of faith and science to deliver a novel that you will never forget. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1950
• Where—Plainfield, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., M.A., San Diego State University
• Awards—RITA Award
• Currently—lives in North Carolina
Diane Chamberlain is the bestselling American author of some 30 novels, primarily surrounding family relationships, love, and forgiveness. Her works have been published in 20 languages. Her best-known books include The Silent Sister (2014), Necessary Lies (2013), and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes (2006).
In her own words:
I was an insatiable reader as a child, and that fact, combined with a vivid imagination, inspired me to write. I penned a few truly terrible "novellas" at age twelve, then put fiction aside for many years as I pursued my education.
I grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey and spent my summers at the Jersey Shore, two settings that have found their way into my novels.
In high school, my favorite authors were the unlikely combination of Victoria Holt and Sinclair Lewis. I loved Holt's flair for romantic suspense and Lewis's character studies as well as his exploration of social values, and both those authors influenced the writer I am today.
I attended Glassboro State College in New Jersey as a special education major before moving to San Diego, where I received both my bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from San Diego State University. After graduating, I worked in a couple of youth counseling agencies and then focused on medical social work, which I adored. I worked at Sharp Hospital in San Diego and Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C. before opening a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria, Virginia, specializing in adolescents. I reluctantly closed my practice in 1992 when I realized that I could no longer split my time between two careers and be effective at both of them.
It was while I was working in San Diego that I started writing. I'd had a story in my mind since I was a young adolescent about a group of people living together at the Jersey Shore. While waiting for a doctor's appointment one day, I pulled out a pen and pad began putting that story on paper. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I took a class in fiction writing, but for the most part, I "learned by doing." That story, Private Relations, took me four years to complete. I sold it in 1986, but it wasn't published until 1989 (three very long years!), when it earned me the RITA award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel. Except for a brief stint writing for daytime TV (One Life to Live) and a few miscellaneous articles for newspapers and magazines, I've focused my efforts on book-length fiction and am currently working on my nineteenth novel.
My stories are often filled with mystery and suspense, and–I hope–they also tug at the emotions. Relationships – between men and women, parents and children, sisters and brothers – are always the primary focus of my books. I can't think of anything more fascinating than the way people struggle with life's trials and tribulations, both together and alone.
In the mid-nineties, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a challenging disease to live with. Although my RA is under good control with medication and I can usually type for many hours a day, I sometimes rely on voice recognition technology to get words on paper. I’m very grateful to the inventor of that software! I lived in Northern Virginia until the summer of 2005, when I moved to North Carolina, the state that inspired so many of my stories and where I live with my significant other, photographer John Pagliuca. I have three grown stepdaughters, three sons-in-law, three grandbabies, and two shelties named Keeper and Jet.
For me, the real joy of writing is having the opportunity to touch readers with my words. I hope that my stories move you in some way and give you hours of enjoyable reading. (With permission from the author's website. Retrieved 6/6/2014.)
Book Reviews
Rich and hearbreakingly written.
Women's World Magazine
A heartwarming and exciting page turner.
Augusta Chronicle
A touching story of love.
Parkersburg News-Sentinel
[E]xciting and heartfelt…. Chamberlain expertly blends the time-travel elements with the wonderful story of a mother’s love and the depths of sacrifice she makes for her child. This is a page-turning crowd-pleaser.
Publishers Weekly
Chamberlain stretches her sense of familial relationships and toe-curling suspense in new directions, weaving in elements of trust, history, and time as she explores the things we do for love. With a little tension and a lot of heart.
Booklist
[T]he reader… [is] asked to suspend a lot of disbelief… and try not to guess several obvious plot twists. Still, Carly is a likable heroine… caught in a heart-wrenching dilemma.… [W]ell-paced and… satisfyingly sweet despite its predictability.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How does the prologue set the reader up for the rest of the novel? What did it leave you wondering about?
2. How does the dual perspective—Hunter’s narration in 1970 and Carly’s narration throughout her experiences—affect your reading experience? What are the primary differences between their voices? What do you like about having both sides of the story?
3. Throughout the novel, Carly and Hunter share a very special bond of trust and understanding. Where do you think that bond comes from? Is it simply because they are family? Do you have a similar bond with your family, either the one you were born with or the one you chose for yourself?
4. In The Dream Daughter, Carly has to take the ultimate leap of faith, both literally and metaphorically. Have you ever had to take a similar leap? What about it scared you? Was it ultimately worth it?
5. When Carly first travels to 2001, she is baffled by all of the technology and the changing social norms. Which things that Carly didn’t understand do you find most interesting? Were any of them funny? What do you think you would find if you traveled thirty years into the future?
6. Throughout the novel, the presence of water plays an important role in Carly’s life. She lives close to the ocean in North Carolina, she met her husband at the beach, and she feels much more comfortable stepping off over water whenever she can. What do you think water means to Carly? How does she find comfort in it, even in New York City?
7. On page 178, Patti says to Hunter, "It would be like you killed her. Maybe you have." Why do you think Patti feels this way about her husband, whom she loves very much? How is Patti processing her grief and fear differently from Hunter? How do you think you would react in a similar situation?
(Questions issued by the publishers.)
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The City We Became
N.K. Jemisin, 2020
Orbit Books
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316509848
Summary
N.K. Jemisin crafts her most incredible novel yet, a story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City.
In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power.
In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her.
In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.
And they're not the only ones.
Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—September 19, 1972
• Where—Iowa City, Iowa, USA
• Raised—New York City, New York; Mobil, Alabama
• Education—B.S., Tulane University; M.Ed., University of Maryland
• Awards—(below)
• Currently—New York City, New York
Nora K. Jemisin is an American author, whom The New York Times has called "the most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation." Her fiction explores a wide variety of themes, including cultural conflict and oppression.
Jemisin has won numerous awards, including Hugo Awards for Best Novel in 2016, 2017, and 2018— for her entire Broken Earth trilogy—making her the only author to have won a Hugo Best Novel for three consecutive years. She was also the first African-American writer to have won in the Hugo best novel category.
Background
Jemisin was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and grew up in New York City and Mobile, Alabama. She attended Tulane University from 1990 to 1994, where she received a B.S. in psychology. She went on to study counseling and earn her M.Ed. from the University of Maryland.
Jemisin worked for years as a psychologal counselor while writing on the side. In 2016, she mounted a fund-raising campaign on Patreon, earning enough to enable her to quit her work as a therapist and devote herself to writing fulltime.
In January of that same year, Bustle called Jemisin "the sci-fi writer every woman needs to be reading." In 2017, Jemisin started writing "Otherworldly," a bimonthly column for The New York Times.
Major Sci-Fi Works
— Inheritance Trilogy
2010 - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
2010 - The Broken Kingdoms
2011 - The Kingdom of Gods
2014 - The Awakened Kingdom (sequel to trilogy, novella)
2015 - Shades in Shadow (prequel to trilogy, short stories)
— Dreamblood Duology
2012- The Killing Moon
2012 -The Shadowed Sun
— Broken Earth series
2015 - The Fifth Season
2016 - The Obelisk Gate
2017 - The Stone Sky
Awards
2010 - Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, Best Fantasy Novel (The Broken Kingdoms)
2011 - Locus Award, Best First Novel (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms)
2011 - Sense of Gender Award (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms)
2012 - Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, Best Fantasy Novel 2012 (The Shadowed Sun)
2016 - Hugo Award, Best Novel (The Fifth Season)
2017 - Hugo Award, Best Novel (The Obelisk Gate)
2018 - Nebula Award, Best Novel (The Stone Sky)
2018 - Locus Award, Best Fantasy (The Stone Sky)
2018 - Hugo Award, Best Novel (The Stone Sky)
2019 - American Library Association's Alex Award (How Long 'til Black Future Month?)
(Author Bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/12/2020.)
Book Reviews
The book is rich and generous…. The Enemy is white supremacy, police brutality, gentrification, but the book doesn’t waste time arguing that those things are evil…. Instead, its main project is one of bridge-building, knitting communities togethet…. While the whole project is enjoyably looser, faster, jokier than Jemisin’s other novels, [some] passages… make it feel less disciplined or anchored in its rhetoric than her fantasy worlds…. Mostly, though, my experience of this book was of a white-knuckled grip…. It’s a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms.
Amal El-Mohtar - New York Times Book Review
[S]heer moxie and sly humor…. The City We Became ends on a high note, but it makes no concession that the fight for a more equitable world is over. In both fiction and reality, it’s barely started.
Elizabeth Hand - Washington Post
What is most remarkable, given the pulp energy of this classic struggle against eldritch evils, is that The City We Became is also an astute interrogation of the realities of New York life.… Jemison’s characters are far more than allegories, although each rather cleverly reflects their respective boroughs…. [The novel] is meticulously grounded in the familiar, but is just as wildly imaginative and thought-provoking and a lot of fun along the way.
Gary K. Wollfe - Chicago Tribune
The City We Became… is, in a way, a metaphor for Jemisin's success… at redefining the science fiction and fantasy genre—a genre that has long been defined by the tastes and stories of mostly white men…. My only real issue with the book is that it comes to a relatively abrupt end. I want to binge on the entire series right now, which is the ultimate magic and allure of Jemisin's work. She pulls you into her world and makes you want more; she makes you want to stay there forever.
Steve Mullis - NPR
(Starred review) [S]staggering contemporary fantasy…. Blending the concept of the multiverse with New York City arcana, this novel works as both a wry adventure and an incisive look at a changing city. Readers will be thrilled.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Jemisin writes a harsh love story to one of America's most famous places. As raw and vibrant as the city itself, the prose pushes the boundaries of fantasy and brings home what residents already know—their city is alive. —Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
Library Journal
(Starred review) Some of the most exciting and powerful fantasy writing of today... Jemisin's latest will attract ... even those who don't typically read genre fiction.
Booklist
(Starred review) This extremely urban fantasy… The novel is a bold calling out of the racial tensions dividing not only New York City, but the U.S. as a whole…. Although the story is a fantasy, many aspects of the plot draw on contemporary incidents.… Fierce, poetic, uncompromising.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE CITY WE BECAME … then take off on your own:
1. Start by considering the unusual form this alien force takes in attacking New York City. What do you make of it: how does it operate? What is its intent?
2. (Follow-up to Question 1) What urban weaknesses does the monster exploit? What is it about city-life that makes it vulnerable, as opposed to, say, small-town or rural life?
3. Jemisin writes that "Great cities are like any other living things": they gestate and then are born and eventually die. In between a city can cohere, coming together like a living organism. What is Jemisin's vision here? What does she mean?
4. The author also writes:
A city is never alone, not really—and this city seems less solitary than most. More like a family: many parts, frequently squabbling … but in the end, against enemies, they come together to protect one another. They must, or die.
Is "coming together" possible? Do divisions in our society and culture allow for mutuality? What does it take? If threats unite us in action, will the union last once the threat has passed?
5. Why are the particular five avatars in The City We Became chosen to square off against the White Woman? What qualities do they bring, or not bring, to the fight? If you're familiar with New York City, how does each of the Avators reflect the borough they come from?
m. Metaphorically, what does the enemy represent?
6. Jemisin states one of the themes of her work: "There ain't no one way to be a part of this city." Consider the meaning of this remark and why it is so central to Jemisin's story.
7. Manhattan avatar's "construct" to fight the woman in the park is "money talks, bullshit walks." What is his meaning?
8. Jemisin weaves into her plot the history and demography of each of the boroughs. Did you find the information interesting, did it enhance the story for you? Or did you find that it slowed the pace and distracted you from the action?
9. Jemisin tackles social issues that plague urban environments: gentrification, rising rents, corporatization of neighborhoods, and racism. How does she demonstrate each of these issues in The City We Became?
10. What was your sense of the book's ending: one of hope and possibility … or one of dismay and fear?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Little Deaths
Emma Flint, 2017
Hatchette Books
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316272476
Summary
It's 1965 in a tight-knit working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, and Ruth Malone—a single mother who works long hours as a cocktail waitress—wakes to discover her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing.
Later that day, Cindy's body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.'s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth.
As police investigate the murders, the detritus of Ruth's life is exposed.
Seen through the eyes of the cops, the empty bourbon bottles and provocative clothing which litter her apartment, the piles of letters from countless men and Ruth's little black book of phone numbers, make her a drunk, a loose woman—and therefore a bad mother. The lead detective, a strict Catholic who believes women belong in the home, leaps to the obvious conclusion: facing divorce and a custody battle, Malone took her children's lives.
Pete Wonicke is a rookie tabloid reporter who finagles an assignment to cover the murders. Determined to make his name in the paper, he begins digging into the case. Pete's interest in the story develops into an obsession with Ruth, and he comes to believe there's something more to the woman whom prosecutors, the press, and the public have painted as a promiscuous femme fatale.
Did Ruth Malone violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance—or is there something more sinister at play?
Inspired by a true story, Little Deaths, like celebrated novels by Sarah Waters and Megan Abbott, is compelling literary crime fiction that explores the capacity for good and evil in us all. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1974
• Where—Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, UK
• Education—University of St. Andrews
• Currently—lives in London, England
Emma Flint is a British writer and novelist, whose debut work, Little Deaths, was published in 2017. The book is based on true-life events in New York City in 1965. Flints works as a technical writer in London, where she lives.
Flint was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England. She studied English and History at the University of St Andrews and is a graduate of the Faber Academy writing program in London. Since her childhood, Flint has read true-crime accounts, developing an encyclopedic knowledge of real-life murder cases and of notorious historical figures, as well as a fascination with unorthodox women--past, present and fictional. Little Deaths is her first novel. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Little Deaths, Emma Flint’s mesmerizing debut, works well as a look at misogyny, gossip, morals and the rush to judge others when a child goes missing.... While Flint bases her novel on the real case of Alice Crimmins and her controversial conviction, she turns Little Deaths into a poignant look at a woman fighting for her emotional independence, who keeps her grief, heartbreak and frustrations deep inside her soul.
Oline H. Dogdill - AP/Washington Post
[D]eftly done.... Flint describes [Ruth's] grief, loss and loneliness with a tough delicacy that is both exact and heart-wrenching.... The opening chapters are gripping....[and] Flint writes powerfully of Ruth’s stunned grief.... The last third of the book, her trial, is absolutely riveting. The ending may or may not convince you, but that is perhaps immaterial: Little Deaths is a strong and confident addition to...novels about flawed, angry, hurt women navigating hostile social and intimate milieus that turn viciously punitive when those women rebel.
Margie Orford - Guardian (UK)
[An] excellent debut...Flint is unsparing and convincing in her portrayal of Malone, a woman of little education and flawed habits, fighting a society that believes she could not be a good mother.
Times (UK)
Wonderfully atmospheric.... Simmering with tension, Little Deaths is a stylish, troubling look at how appearances can deceive.
Express (UK)
This thrilling suspense story will make you question your loyalties at every turn.
Harper's Bazaar
I read this with a dry mouth and a pounding heart—and can think of no higher praise for a literary crime novel.
The Bookseller (UK)
(Starred review.) [A]ffecting, achingly beautiful debut.... This stunning novel is less about whodunit than deeper social issues of motherhood, morals, and the kind of rush to judgment that can condemn someone long before the accused sees the inside of a courtroom.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Inspired by true events, Flint explores how people respond to extreme circumstances and how quick observers can be to judge. Verdict: This accomplished debut novel will intrigue fans of both true crime and noir fiction. Flint...is a welcome addition to the world of literary crime fiction. —Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Compelling.... [T]he closing scene is a jaw-dropper.... This is absolutely absorbing literary crime fiction.
Booklist
One hot summer in New York, 1965, a sexy, troubled cocktail waitress is suspected of murdering her children.... Since we know where it begins, it seems we know how it must turn out—but there are a few surprises left. Sharply rendered literary noir, compelling enough to forgive a slightly left-field resolution.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Little Deaths...then take off on your own:
1. Describe Ruth Malone. How does the author portray her? Talk about the way Ruth uses make-up (as a mask?) and seems obsessed with her appearance. What about her behavior after the deaths of her children?
2. Follow-up to Question 1: Equally important, how does Emma Flint portray Ruth's life as a single mother of two children, living in a working-class neighborhood in Queens Borough, New York City? Does the author do a good job of depicting the struggle of daily life for Ruth?
3. Why do the police detectives immediately focus in on Ruth; why are they so convinced she is a murderer? Does their alleged motive hold water? How does her behavior solidify their suspicions.
4. Whenever the cops accuse her, Ruth thinks to herself, "They knew nothing of guilt. They were not mothers.” Does this way of thinking—in your eyes—implicate her in anyway, or justify her, or excuse her?
5. What about Pete Wonicke? What motivates him to pursue the case on his own? What makes him suspicious of the police? Or is that he is simply fascinated by or attracted to Ruth?
6. Talk about the social mores of the day and how those mores drove the press and public, to say nothing of the police, toward a condemnation of Ruth. To what degree, if any, have those attitudes changed in the past 50-so years?
7. Were you taken by surprise by the way the ended?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Melmoth
Sarah Perry, 2018
HarperCollins
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062856395
Summary
For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction.
It has been years since Helen Franklin left England.
In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge.
That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore.
As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy.
But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1979
• Where—Chelmsford, England, UK
• Education—Ph.D., Royal Holloway University
• Currently—lives in Norwich, England
Sarah Perry is an English author. She has had two novels published: The Essex Serpent (2016) and After Me Comes the Flood (2014). Perry was born in Chelmsford, Essex, into a family of devout Christians who were members of a Strict Baptist church.
Perry grew up with little, if any, access to contemporary art, culture, and writing. She filled her time with classical music, classic novels and poetry, and church-related activities. She says this early immersion in old literature and the King James Bible profoundly influenced her writing style.
She has a PhD in creative writing from Royal Holloway University where her supervisor was English novelist and poet, Sir Andrew Motion. Her doctoral thesis was on the Gothic in the writing of Iris Murdoch, and Perry has subsequently published an article on the Gothic in Aeon magazine.
I wrote about the power of place in my PhD thesis, particularly the importance of buildings in the Gothic (a genre which I find myself inhabiting without ever having meant to). Fiction in the Gothic inheritance makes much of the potent importance of the interior, from the castle where Jonathan Harker finds himself holed up to Thornfield, and from the suburban homes in Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black to the ghastly crypts in The Monk.
Recognition
Perry's second nove, The Essex Serpent, was nominated in the Novel category for the 2016 Costa Book Awards and was named Waterstones Book Of The Year 2016. It was placed on the long list for the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. In 2013 she was a writer in residence at Gladstone's Library. She won the 2004 Shiva Naipaul Memorial prize for travel writing for "A Little Unexpected," an article about her experiences in the Philippines. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/12/2017.)
Book Reviews
Each detour in Melmoth could be its own novel, and I was often sorry to leave them. There is a clarity to these historical sections, a care and restraint. Perry could be describing her own well-appointed sentences when she writes of a home, "Everything in it was so affectionately chosen that it did not seem furnished so much as inhabited."… The novel reels you in, using the same trick of all the best ghost stories, from The Turn of the Screw on: Is there really a ghost before you? Or do you see the projection of your own secret sins and desires? What is more frightening than the human? For all the…special effects, it's the simple, domestic details that shine in this book: the hard snow that falls like "a table-salt glitter," the "consoling noises" of the teakettle, the way Perry brings a character to life in a few swift slashes…For all the swirling jackdaws and oppressive doom , this book has a ruddy optimism at its core…if suffering is never in short supply nor are opportunities for intercession, as Helen learns, to live according to the virtues of compassion, courage, self-sacrifice. "Look!" is the first word in several chapters. It is the book's moral injunction. Pay attention, Perry bids us. Don't leave the lonely to Melmoth.
Perul Sehgal - New York Times
Masterful…scary and smart, working as a horror story but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of will and love. Perry did as much in her richly praised novel The Essex Serpent, but this is a deeper, more complex novel and more rewarding.
Washington Post
Ms. Perry, whose last book, The Essex Serpent, was a breakout hit, again proves herself a master of atmosphere.
Wall Street Journal
Perry’s masterly piece of postmodern gothic is one of the great achievements of the century and deserves all the prizes and praise that will be heaped upon it.
Guardian (UK)
Ingenious.… haunting, disquieting and memorable, and showcase[s] Perry’s dazzling creative powers.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
[A] spine-tingling, gloriously creepy tale … this is horror done masterfully.
Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The last few years have brought a glut of fashionably affectless and amoral fiction....Sarah Perry’s fierce, full-hearted books about love and ethics feel like an antidote to that elegant apathy....In a world that feels desperate, chaotic, and unredeemable, Melmoth asks us to be witnesses for each other.
NPR
The author of The Essex Serpent casts another haunting spell in this exquisitely written gothic novel.
People
(Starred review) [A]n unforgettable achievement.… Though rich in gothic tropes and sinister atmosphere, the novel transcends pastiche. Perry’s heartbreaking, horrifying monster confronts the characters …with humanity’s complicity in history’s darkest moments …and its longing for both companionship and redemption.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) This fever dream of a novel will prove as compelling and all-consuming as The Essex Serpent.
Library Journal
(Starred review) [A] stylized, postmodern work by a masterly writer… a sobering, disturbing, yet powerful and moving book that cannot fail to impress. The stories-within-stories and the Jewish themes recall Dara Horn’s The World to Come and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, although Melmoth presents different kinds of nightmares.
Booklist
(Starred review) In rich, lyrical prose, Perry weaves history and myth, human frailty and compassion, into an affecting gothic morality tale for 2018.… Perry is changing what a modern-day ghost story can look like…. A chilling novel.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
The Book of Longings
Sue Monk Kidd, 2020
Penguin Publishing
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525429760
Summary
An extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings.
Ana is raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee. Rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women.
But Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her—until an encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything.
Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana's pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to Rome's occupation of Israel, partially led by her brother, Judas.
She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who harbors a compelling secret.
When Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings. Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events considered among the most impactful in human history.
Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus's life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring, unforgettable account of one woman's bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place and culture devised to silence her.
It is a triumph of storytelling both timely and timeless, from a masterful writer at the height of her powers. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 12, 1948
• Where—Sylvester, Georgia, USA
• Education—B.S., Texas Christian University
• Awards—Poets and Writers Award; Katherine Anne Porter Award
• Currently—lives near Charleston, South Carolina
Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, spent more than one hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than four million copies, and was chosen as the 2004 Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year and Good Morning America's "Read This!" Book Club pick. She is also the author of several acclaimed memoirs and the recipient of numerous awards, including a Poets & Writers award. She lives near Charleston, South Carolina.
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Sue Monk Kidd first made her mark on the literary circuit with a pair of highly acclaimed, well-loved memoirs detailing her personal spiritual development. However, it was a work of fiction, The Secret Life of Bees, that truly solidified her place among contemporary writers. Although Kidd is no longer writing memoirs, her fiction is still playing an important role in her on-going journey of spiritual self-discovery.
Despite the fact that Kidd's first published books were nonfiction works, her infatuation with writing grew out of old-fashioned, Southern-yarn spinning. As a little girl in the little town of Sylvester, Georgia, Kidd thrilled to listen to her father tell stories about "mules who went through cafeteria lines and a petulant boy named Chewing Gum Bum," as she says on her web site. Inspired by her dad's tall tales, Kidd began keeping a journal that chronicled her everyday experiences.
Such self-scrutiny surely gave her the tools she needed to pen such keenly insightful memoirs as When the Hearts Waits and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, both tracking her development as a Christian and a woman. "I think when you have an impulse to write memoir you are having an opportunity to create meaning of your life," she told Barnes & Noble.com, "to articulate your experience; to understand it in deeper ways… And after a while, it does free you from yourself, of having to write about yourself, which it eventually did for me."
Once Kidd had worked the need to write about herself out of her system, she decided to get back to the kind of storytelling that inspired her to become a writer in the first place. Her debut novel The Secret Life of Bees showed just how powerfully the gift of storytelling charges through Kidd's veins. The novel has sold more than 4.5 million copies, been published in over twenty languages, and spent over two years on the New York Times bestseller list.
Even as Kidd has shifted her focus from autobiography to fiction, she still uses her writing as a means of self-discovery. This is especially evident in her latest novel The Mermaid Chair, which tells the story of a woman named Jessie who lives a rather ordinary life with her husband Hugh until she meets a man about to take his final vows at a Benedictine monastery. Her budding infatuation with Brother Thomas leads Jessie to take stock of her life and resolve an increasingly intense personal tug-of-war between marital fidelity and desire.
Kidd feels that through telling Jessie's story, she is also continuing her own journey of self-discovery, which she began when writing her first books. "I think there is some part of that journey towards one's self that I did experience. I told that particular story in my book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and it is the story of a woman's very-fierce longing for herself. The character in The Mermaid Chair, Jessie, has this need to come home to herself in a much deeper way," Kidd said, "to define herself, and I certainly know that longing."
Kidd lives beside a salt marsh near Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Sandy, a marriage and individual counselor in private practice. (From Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
A daring leap into historical fiction…. Deeply researched and reverent, The Book of Longings explores the importance of women making their voices heard in a time when the powers that be strove to keep them silent.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The latest from Sue Monk Kidd introduces us to Ana, a courageous, intelligent woman who marries Jesus long before his public ministry begins. Based on meticulous historical research, this is a humanizing look at Jesus the man, as well as an inspiring story of a strong woman living in a society bent on her silence.
Good Housekeeping
(Starred review) Richly imagined…. Ana’s ambition and strong sense of justice make her a sympathetic character.… Kidd’s novel is also a vibrant portrait of a woman striving to preserve and celebrate women’s stories—her own and countless others.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) [C)ompelling characters and intriguing story lines…. The intensity, bravery, and strength of character of Ana, wife of Jesus of Nazareth, as imagined by Kidd, will inspire readers…to live authentically and remain true to oneself. —Laurie Cavanaugh, Thayer P.L., Braintree, MA
Library Journal
An engrossing, briskly paced story in an appealing voice…. [T]he message about the importance of kindness and the power of women’s voices should resonate strongly with today’s readers.
Booklist
In Kidd’s feminist take on the New Testament, Jesus has a wife.… A structural problem is posed when… [Ana flees] to Alexandria…. [R]emoving her from the main action destroys the novel’s momentum. A daring concept not so daringly developed.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the title of the novel. Ana is a character defined by her longings and aspirations. She is passionate about the power of writing, of narratives, of having a voice, as well as lifting up the voices of other women. How does the novel’s theme of finding and expressing one’s authentic voice unfold in the story? What forces work to silence contemporary women and what emboldens them?
2. What role does Ana’s incantation bowl play in her quest to realize her longing? What is the importance of ritualizing one’s faith or longings? If you were given an incantation bowl in which to inscribe your deepest longing, what might you write? What can our longings teach us?
3. Though fictional, The Book of Longings is also a deeply researched account of life two thousand years ago. What rules and customs surprised you? Which parts of the story feel especially relevant to modern-day life? Did you identify with Ana in any way?
4. Ana’s aunt Yaltha is described as being as tough, clever, defiant, and daring as she is nurturing: "Her mind was an immense feral country that spilled its borders. She trespassed everywhere" (page 4). What do you think is Yaltha’s most profound influence on Ana? Has there been anyone in your life like Yaltha? How do you think you have been shaped by the older women in your life?
5. Though Ana is born to a wealthy family and has been afforded some education, her parents have arranged for her to marry an older man whom she despises, and they expect her to give up her scholarly ambitions. Are there inhibiting cultural expectations placed on women today, and if so, how much do they differ depending on other factors such as race, class, and birthplace? How are these expectations represented in marriage ceremonies, then and now?
6. Discuss the relationship between Ana and Jesus. Were there moments they shared in the story that particularly resonated with you? What compromises did Ana make within the marriage? What does it mean to "belong" to someone? What does it mean to belong to oneself?
7. The Book of Longings renders Jesus in a way that foregrounds his humanity, from his struggle with the stigma conferred upon him by the circumstances of his birth to his smile, which is "a broad, crooked arrangement on his face" (page 86). Ana also finds him to be "a peacemaker and provocateur in equal measures" (page 143), a man who both enlivens and emboldens her—even as his audacity also reminds her of her own comparatively marginal place in society. Do you think mainstream depictions of Jesus emphasize his divinity at the expense of allowing for his authentic humanity? Did the novel alter your perception of his character and his life on earth or enhance your existing idea of him in some way?
8. Likewise, discuss the novel’s portrayal of Jesus’s mother, Mary, a character the author describes, endearingly, as "a kind woman with graying hair, who is often weary from chores, a mother who did a superb job on her son, who taught him a lot that she didn’t get credit for." How does Mary capture the mystery of the dual nature of being both human and divine?
9. Sue Monk Kidd has explored feminist theology for years, along with what she calls "the missing feminine within religion," which eventually finds expression through the character of Ana. What do you think about the relationship between feminism and religious belief? In what ways can feminism become a spiritual quest?
10. How do you think Ana’s and Jesus’s relationships to holiness differ, and how are they alike? Consider the significance of their names for God—Jesus speaks of "Father," while Ana speaks of "I Am Who I Am." How does Ana’s concept of the divine evolve as the story develops? What power and allure does the feminine spirit of God, known as Sophia, hold for her?
11. When Yaltha confesses her private loss to Ana, Ana thinks to herself, "We women harbor our intimacies in locked places in our bodies. They are ours to relinquish when we choose" (page 186). What are some of the different ways the characters cope with loss and injustice? Consider the behavioral differences and the variety of coping mechanisms employed by the men and women in the novel. How do grief and grievance manifest differently in characters such as Ana, Judas, Yaltha, and Jesus?
12. When Ana is confronting motherhood and the choice to bear children, Yaltha tells her, "I don’t doubt you should give yourself to motherhood. I only question what it is you’re meant to mother" (page 196). How much do you think the idea that a woman’s purpose is fulfilled by having children persists today? Are women’s creative ambitions outside of the family still viewed as less fundamentally fulfilling somehow? Has motherhood impacted your passions and pursuits?
13. Kidd revisits a theme she first wrote about in The Secret Life of Bees: finding a family where one least expects. Discuss the ways that Ana, Yaltha, Tabitha, and Diodora come together to form a family after Jesus’s death. In what ways do the Therapeutae become Ana’s place of belonging?
14. At the beginning of the novel, Ana writes in her incantation bowl, "When I am dust, sing these words over my bones: she was a voice" (page 13). Near the story’s end, she composes her opus, Thunder: Perfect Mind (a historically real document that was found in the Egyptian desert in 1945). Later, Ana buries copies of it and all her narratives on the side of a cliff to preserve them for future generations. Do you feel she realized her longing to become a voice? What thoughts and feelings did the excerpts from Thunder: Perfect Mind (pages 335–36) stir in you? Could Ana’s writings be considered sacred texts?
15. At the end of the novel, Ana ponders why Jesus’s followers have removed her from the story of his life: "Was it because I was absent when he traveled about Galilee during his ministry? Was it because women were so often invisible? Did they believe making him celibate rendered him more spiritual?" (page 407). Why do you think Ana would have been silenced and erased?
16. If Jesus having a wife were a more accepted narrative, how do you think it would affect the religious and cultural legacy of Christianity?
17. Over the course of Ana’s journey, The Book of Longings returns to the idea of the largeness within people. How do you conceive of your own largeness? What inspires it? What inhibits it? Do you agree with Yaltha that "it isn’t the largeness in you that matters most, it’s your passion to bring it forth" (page 353)?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)