We Must Be Brave
Frances Liardet, 2019
Penguin Publising
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780735218864
Summary
Spanning the sweep of the twentieth century, We Must Be Brave explores the fierce love that we feel for our children and the power of that love to endure. Beyond distance, beyond time, beyond life itself.
One woman. One little girl. The war that changed everything.
December 1940.
In the disorderly evacuation of Southampton, England, newly married Ellen Parr finds a small child asleep on the backseat of an empty bus. No one knows who little Pamela is.
Ellen professed not to want children with her older husband, and when she takes Pamela into her home and rapidly into her heart, she discovers that this is true: Ellen doesn't want children. She wants only Pamela.
Three golden years pass as the Second World War rages on. Then one day Pamela is taken away, screaming. Ellen is no stranger to sorrow, but when she returns to the quiet village life she's long lived, she finds herself asking: In a world changed by war, is it fair to wish for an unchanged heart?
In the spirit of We Were the Lucky Ones and The Nightingale, here is a novel about courage and kindness, hardship and friendship, and the astonishing power of love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Frances Liardet (Lee-ARE-det) was born in the 1960s, a child of children of the Second World War. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia and studied Arabic at Oxford, before traveling to Cairo to translate modern Egyptian novelists, including Naguib Mahfouz and Edwar al-Kharrat.
Liardet currently lives in Somerset, England, with her husband and daughter, and helps to run a summer writing session called Bootcamp. We Must Be Brave is her American debut. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Ellen, beset by hardship from a young age, ends up happy in a marriage blanc with the much older Selwyn, and is convinced she doesn’t want children until Pamela arrives. Then she experiences an all-consuming love that Liardet captures on the page with a heartbreaking conviction.
Times (UK)
Dazzling.… As a testament to parental love and its relationship to the heartbreaking, healing, almost ungraspable passage of time, We Must Be Brave is a great success: richly observed, lovingly drawn, and determinedly clear-eyed to the last.
Guardian (UK)
Poignant and absorbing.
People
Deeply moving.… A stunningly accurate portrayal of the all-encompassing depth of a mother’s love (whether she’s the biological mother or not). Read it and weep.
AARP Magazine
Liardet’s lovely book [is] about love and loss, and our chosen families. Dare you not to weep.
Woman’s Day
Beautifully written. Its scope is ambitious, as it seeks to portray the longtime ravages that the war and its attendance upheavals perpetrated upon the home front.… [This historical war novel] is different and original.
Historical Novel Review
[A] moving American debut, set in WWII England, follows a childless woman discovering joy after she begins caring for a young girl.… Readers will be captivated by Ellen’s story, which is bolstered by a swift plot and characters who realistically and memorably grow.
Publishers Weekly
Though touted as World War II historical fiction, this tearjerker about motherhood and loss has more in common with M.L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans.… [A] quirky cast of characters… [and a] slightly rushed ending of a story stretch[es] across several decades. —Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL
Library Journal
This chronicle of an Englishwoman’s life across the middle of the 20th century radiates love and suffering through a caring but incomplete marriage, war, and aching affection for other people’s children.… [An] understated yet blazing story of hearts wounded and restored.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Ellen has a tough childhood, especially once her family moves into the Absaloms. How does Ellen’s youth shape her? Were you surprised to learn of Ellen’s difficult past?
2. How did you feel about Ellen’s marriage to Selwyn? Do you agree with her decision to sacrifice the possibility of a family at such a young age? Why or why not?
3. If Ellen doesn’t want children, why does Pamela affect her as she does? Discuss how their relationship evolves. How does Pamela change Ellen?
4. In the beginning, Selwyn is less willing than Ellen to bring Pamela into their home. Why? Does his opinion change over time? How does fatherhood change Selwyn? How is his experience with Pamela different from Ellen’s?
5. Do you agree with Ellen’s decision to let Pamela leave with Aubrey? Why or why not? If you disagree, what would you have done? What life do you think would have been best for Pamela?
6. How does World War II change the villagers of Upton? How does it change Ellen? In what ways would this novel be different if it had been set in a time of peace?
7. Through poverty and success, Ellen is supported by many people in Upton. How do these friendships shape her life? Do you feel as though you have a similar community in your life? Why or why not?
8. On p. 310, Lucy and Ellen reflect on their choices, and Lucy tells Ellen if she’d married Bob Coward, she might have "got the full bowl." What does Lucy mean? How does Ellen feel about the question? Do you think she got "the full bowl" in the end?
9. How is Penny different than Pamela? Why do you think Ellen conflates the two? What does Penny teach Ellen?
10. Were you surprised by the ending? Why or why not?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Sport of Kings
C.E. Morgan, 2016
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
560 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250131843
Summary
An American tale centered on a horse and two families: one white, a Southern dynasty whose forefathers were among the founders of Kentucky; the other African-American, the descendants of their slaves.
It is a dauntless narrative that stretches from the fields of the Virginia piedmont to the abundant pastures of the Bluegrass, and across the dark waters of the Ohio River; from the final shots of the Revolutionary War to the resounding clang of the starting bell at Churchill Downs.
As C. E. Morgan unspools a fabric of shared histories, past and present converge in a Thoroughbred named Hellsmouth, heir to Secretariat and a contender for the Triple Crown. Newly confronted with one another in the quest for victory, the two families must face the consequences of their ambitions, as each is driven — and haunted — by the same, enduring question: How far away from your father can you run?
A sweeping narrative of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in the shadow of slavery and a moral epic for our time. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1976
• Where—Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
• Education—B.M., Berea College; Th.M., Harvard Divinity School
• Awards—Whiting Award (more below)
• Currently—lives in Berea, Kentucky
Catherine Elaine Morgan is an American author of the novels, The Sport of Kings (2016) and All the Living (2009) She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. As an undergraduate, she studied voice at Berea College, a tuition-free labor college for students from poor and working-class backgrounds in Appalachia. In exchange for a free education, all students work for the college while enrolled. Morgan also attended Harvard Divinity School, where she studied literature and religion and attained her Masters in Theology. While at Harvard, she wrote her first novel, All the Living. She lives in Berea, Kentucky, with her husband.
Recognition and Awards
2009 - National Book Foundation "5 under 35" Award
2010 - Lannan Literary Fellowship
2012 - United States Artists Fellow Award
2013 - Whiting Award
2016 - Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes (Fiction)
2016 - Kirkus Prize (Fiction)
2017 - Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2017 - Finalist, James Tait Black Prize for Fiction
2017 - Finalist, Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (former Orange Prize)
2017 - Finalist, Rathbones Folio Prize
2017 - Longlist, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
(Author Bio dapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/29/2017.)
Book Reviews
[R]avishing and ambitious…a mud-flecked epic, replete with fertile symbolism, that hurtles through generations of Kentucky history. On its surface, The Sport of Kings has enough incident (arson, incest, a lynching, miscegenation, murder) to sustain a 1980s-era television mini-series.… But Ms. Morgan is not especially interested in surfaces, or in conventional plot migrations. She's an interior writer, with deep verbal and intellectual resources. She fills your head with all that exists in hers, and that is quite a lot—she has a special and almost Darwinian interest in consanguinity, in the barbed things that are passed on in the blood of people and of horses, like curses, from generation to generation…Ms. Morgan's prose has some of [Terrence Malick's] elastic sense of time. Her pace frequently slows to a dream-crawl as she scrutinizes the natural world as if cell by cell. Then, with the flick of a thoroughbred's tail, we are catapulted generations forward or back.
Dwight Garner - New York Times
The Sport of Kings…abounds with Faustian characters and dangerous learning…C. E. Morgan [possesses]…a boundless breadth of knowledge on the darker history of humans and horses in Kentucky…[a] riverine, gorgeously textured novel…There is life, wild joy and finally salvation in the language itself. C. E. Morgan has more nerve, linguistic vitality and commitment to cosmic thoroughness in one joint of her little finger than the next hundred contemporary novelists have in their entire bodies and vocabularies
Jaimy Gordon - New York Times Book Review
Morgan has dared to write the kind of book that was presumed long extinct: a high literary epic of America.
Telegraph (UK)
Sport of Kings boasts a plot that maintains tension and pace, and Morgan weaves its characters, its themes, its several histories together in a marvelous display of literary control and follow-through.
Christian Science Monitor
[A] rich and compulsive new novel.… This book confirms [Morgan] as the new torchbearer of the Southern Gothic tradition.… What emerges is a panoramic view of race relations in America, from the slow crumbling of the Jim Crow laws until shortly before the election of Barack Obama, with occasional glimpses into the more distant past. Racing provides the novel’s overarching metaphor for race (a set of tracks that determine the course of a life, and for which the correct breeding is essential), and Morgan’s white characters are hardly less constricted by history than her black ones.… It’s a bleak and bitter inversion of the American dream — a world in which circumstances are impossible to change, and legacies impossible to shake.… [Morgan is]…an immersive storyteller.… Her prose is often ravishingly beautiful, displaying an unerring instinct for metaphor and music.
Financial Times (UK)
Remarkable achievement.… The Sport of Kings hovers between fiction, history, and myth, its characters sometimes like the ancient ones bound to their tales by fate, its horses distant kin to those who drew the chariot of time across the sky . . . Novelists can do things that other writers can’t—and Morgan can do things that other novelists can’t.… Tremendous, the work of a writer just starting to show us what she can do.
New Yorker
[A]sprawling, magisterial Southern Gothic for the twenty-first century.
Oprah Magazine
[E]njoyable if overwritten…. The novel starts strong out of the gate…then blows it in the backstretch with a series of melodramatic incidents that undermines the care with which Morgan has created these larger-than-life characters. However, …the novel’s authentically pungent shed-row atmosphere, [is] ultimately satisfying as a mint julep on Derby Day.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Though set in the 21st century, the narrative establishes each character's backstory to reveal how the tendrils of …racial history continue to color and coil around the present.… A dense meditation on the ugliness that undergirds much of the sublime we as humans strive for and admire in life. —Joshua Finnell, Los Alamos National Lab., NM
Library Journal
C.E. Morgan’s The Sport of Kings takes the kind of dauntless, breathtaking chances readers once routinely expected from the boldest of American novels.… It is a profoundly orchestrated work that is both timeless and up-to-the-minute in its concerns, the most notable of which is what another Kentucky-bred novelist, Robert Penn Warren, once labeled "the awful responsibility of time."
Judges' panel - Kirkus Prize for Fiction
(Starred review.) [A]n epic novel steeped in American history and geography.… Vaultingly ambitious, thrillingly well-written, charged with moral fervor and rueful compassion. How will this dazzling writer astonish us next time?
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The Sport of Kings opens with a question that resounds throughout the story: "How far away from your father can you run?" Later, Henry Forge reflects, "That was the game of youth, wasn’t it — murdering one’s father?" (p. 312) Henry, Henrietta, and Allmon Shaughnessy all rebel against their fathers’ identities and values. How far away does each of them ultimately manage to run? What impact do their mothers have, present and absent?
2. John Henry Forge mixes learning with cruelty, arrogance, and isolation as he fashions an education for his son, Henry. How do Henry’s lessons with his father compare to his teaching of Henrietta? And how does this compare with what Allmon learns during his time in juvenile detention? (p. 269)
3. When teaching Henrietta about Thoroughbreds, Henry says, "Evolution is a ladder, and our aim is to climb it as quickly as possible." (p. 105) There are many references to ladders throughout the book. What might these signify beyond Henry’s understanding of evolution?
4. Unlike the Forges, Jamie Barlow, Ginnie Miller, Penn, and Lou, the veterinarians are not wealthy or powerful. They speak a plain language about a simple world, thereby offering comfort, relief, and sanctuary. What wisdom do they try to convey to Henry and Henrietta? How do they compare with the nonfamilial influences in Allmon’s life?
5. When Henry is at last free of his father, letting the Forge farm go fallow so he can plant clover and raise horses, does he break free of the past or is he somehow perpetuating the legacy of his ancestors?
6. The Sport of Kings comprises a narrative thread about the Forge family and Hellsmouth interspersed with self-contained stories. Some of these stories read like myths or folktales; others have biblical echoes. How do these inform the main narrative, and how do they contribute to the themes of this novel?
7. What are Henrietta’s passions as a girl and how do they shape the woman she becomes? How does she change after her encounter with Penn?
8. Are there times in their lives when the main characters experience real love as opposed to lust, admiration, greed, or other emotions they mistake or substitute for love? Do Henrietta and Allmon love each other?
9. Discuss the culture and codes of the Jockey Club. What is at stake besides money? What are the parallels between Hellsmouth’s captivity and Allmon’s?
10. What does Allmon learn from his grandfather? What is the meaning of his sermon? (pp. 215–221) How does the jockey Reuben Bedford Walker III relate to the Reverend?
11. What does the genesis story, featuring the God of Pine Mountain, say about the origins of human suffering?
12. How does Henry feel about horses as a boy? As a breeder? After Henrietta’s death? Based on the last line of chapter 6, what might Hellsmouth’s future hold?
13. Why doesn’t Allmon kill Henry? When he goes into Henry’s house to set it on fre, what is he seeking to destroy?
14. The book is structured with six chapters, fve interludes, and an epilogue. What is the purpose of the interludes? Did they distract from or enhance your experience as a reader? How did you interpret the epilogue? Is there redemption in The Sport of Kings?
15. In The Sport of Kings and in her debut novel, All the Living, what images of longing and hunger does C. E. Morgan create? What is the ultimate source of solace for her characters? How do both novels capture humanity’s relationship to the natural world?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Laura & Emma
Kate Greathead, 2018
Simon & Schuster
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501156601
Summary
A tender, witty debut novel about a single mother raising her daughter among the upper crust of New York City society in the late twentieth century from a nine-time Moth StorySLAM champion.
Laura hails from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, born into old money, drifting aimlessly into her early thirties. One weekend in 1981 she meets Jefferson. The two sleep together. He vanishes. And Laura realizes she’s pregnant.
Enter: Emma.
Despite her progressive values, Laura raises Emma by herself in the same blue-blood world of private schools and summer homes she grew up in, buoyed by a host of indelible characters:
- her eccentric mother, who informs her society friends and Emma herself that she was fathered by a Swedish sperm donor;
- her brother, whose childhood stutter reappears in the presence of their forbidding father;
- an exceptionally kind male pediatrician;
- and her overbearing best friend, whose life has followed the Park Avenue script in every way except for childbearing.
Meanwhile, the apple falls far from the tree with Emma, who begins to question her environment in a way her mother never could.
Told in vignettes that mine the profound from the mundane, with meditations on everything from sex and death to insomnia and the catharsis of crying on the subway, a textured portrait emerges of a woman struggling to understand herself, her daughter, and the changing landscape of New York City in the '80s and '90s.
Laura & Emma is an acutely insightful exploration of class and family warfare from a new author whose offbeat sensibility, understated wit, and stylish prose celebrate the comedy and pathos that make us human. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Kate Greathead is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair, and on NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. She was a subject in the American version of the British Up documentary series. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the writer Teddy Wayne. Laura & Emma is her first novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] sly, charming debut.… Laura and Emma’s struggles are real, and their saga makes for a beguiling, addictive read (Book of the Week).
People
For a privileged Manhattan daughter who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, raising a child alone is pearl-clutchingly radical in Kate Greathead’s wryly observed, 1980s-set first novel.
Vogue
A deft exploration of conflict, both class and interfamilial, in 1980s blue-blood New York.
Marie Claire
Kate Greathead’s debut novel gamely takes on class conflict, single motherhood, and the discreet pretension of the 1980s Upper East Side through the story of Laura, a daughter of privilege who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after a one-night stand.
New York Magazine
If the title of Kate Greathead’s debut evokes a Jane Austen novel, well, it’s fitting for an incisive comedy of manners about class divides and the burdens of being born privileged (Best Books So Far of 2018).
Esquire
Kate Greathead classes it up with her debut, Laura & Emma.
Vanity Fair
[W]armhearted.… The supporting characters … sparkle with idiosyncrasies.… Greathead is a talented writer of detail, particularly in her evocations of New York life.… This is a thoughtful novel of trying to find oneself despite an assigned place in the world.
Publishers Weekly
This novel makes a seemingly unlikable character sympathetic and interesting to the point that her story becomes unputdownable. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s to mid-1990s, this debut …will appeal to readers of character-driven women’s fiction.
Library Journal
Most impressive are the ways Greathead restrainedly shows her characters stretching at the seams of their own… restraint, and she paints their immense privilege with knowing nuance. Greathead’s smart and original …novel impresses and charms.
Booklist
Although having a child should by all rights open the windows of Laura's life, it doesn't. Her daughter, on the other hand, turns out to be a totally different sort of person.… This ultimately rather mysterious book …is like a person who speaks so softly that you end up paying very close attention.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. On pages 112 and 113, we get a glimpse of Laura’s dismissive attitude toward sex. How do you think that influences Emma’s burgeoning sexuality throughout the book?
2. Privilege and the awareness of it are a recurring theme in Laura & Emma. At several points, Laura tries to explain what privilege is to Emma (for example, page 100). Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve wanted to explain privilege to children? How does that situation change when they’re part of your family? Did your parents ever have a conversation like this with you?
3. Laura quietly questions her sexuality throughout the book. On page 111, the metaphor describing the mysterious, lurking fisherman taking off—"the wake of his boat unzipping the water like the back of a dress”"—seems to imply a level of desire on Laura’s part. How did you understand Laura’s need—or lack thereof—for intimacy throughout the novel?
4. On page 124, Laura realizes Dr. Brown is offering Emma something "that she hadn’t been offered as a child, and was hence unequipped to provide herself." What do you think Dr. Brown is offering, and does Laura ever discover how to give it to Emma?
5. In the episode Laura has with her brother Nicholas (pages 160–170), she appears jealous and lonely. However, Laura has led a very solitary life for the most part. Why is she suddenly so eager for her brother’s company at this juncture?
6. On pages 197 and 198, there is a brief flashback to one of Laura’s teachers appearing to sexually harass her. In the scene, Bibs is excited that Laura has been invited over to the older male teacher’s house, and "insisted she wear lipstick and carry a comb in her pocketbook." What does this say about Bibs as a mother? Why do you think she let Laura go into this situation? What effect do you think this encounter has on Laura’s impression of men and her feelings toward them? Finally, do you think views of sexual harassment have changed since the late eighties and early nineties?
7. After her death, Laura discovers that Bibs went to group therapy for her depression. On page 183, Laura is momentarily panicking that she has lost Emma, and thinks, "Without Emma there would be no point to anything." What does this say about Laura’s character? Why do you think the author included this?
8. Analyze the first paragraph on page 242 (beginning with "In first grade" and ending with "a shade lighter than what surrounded it"). This paragraph seems like an interruption in the narrative flow. Why do you think the author chose to put it there? How do you interpret it based on the passages before and after?
9. Laura is a very pensive character—constantly evaluating her surroundings and reflecting on them, even if she doesn’t often explore her own thoughts or emotions. On page 164, Emma has a longer reflective moment, similar to ones her mother has had throughout the book. In what ways do you think Emma is like Laura, and in what ways is she drastically different?
10. Woven among the scenes of Laura & Emma are hints of Laura’s possible homosexuality or bisexuality. However, it is never resolved or identified. Why do you think the author chose to do this?
11. The last significant relationship Laura has in the book is with her neighbor, Martin. Why do you think she connects with him (and he to her)?
12. What do you make of the ending? What do you think will happen to Laura? Why did the author choose to end on this note?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Bird King
G. Willow Wilson, 2019
Grove Atlantic
440 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802129031
Summary
An epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.
G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and it established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice.
Now she delivers The Bird King, a stunning new novel that tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker.
Hassan has a secret—he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality.
When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule.
With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 31, 1982
• Where—Morris County, New Jersey
• Raised—Boulder, Colorado, USA
• Education—B.A., Boston University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Seattle, Washington, and Cairo, Egypt
Gwendolyn Willow Wilson, known professionally as G. Willow Wilson, is an American comics writer, memoirist, novelist, essayist, and journalist. She is best known for relaunching the Ms. Marvel title for Marvel Comics (which stars a 16-year-old Muslim superhero named Kamala Khan). But she has also received praise for her memoir and novels.
Early life
Wilson was born in Morris County, New Jersey, where she spent the first ten years of her life. She first encountered comics in the fifth grade while reading an anti-smoking pamphlet featuring the X-Men. Fascinated by the characters, she began watching the cartoon X-Men every Saturday.
Two years later she and her family moved to Boulder, Colorado where Wilson continued to pursue her interest in comics and other forms of popular culture such as tabletop role-playing games.
When she turned 27, Wilson decided to leave Colorado and to pursue a degree in history at Boston University. During her sophomore year, while experiencing adrenal problems, she decided to study world religions, including Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Having grown up in an unreligious household, Wilson drawn to Judaism's belief in an "indivisible God who is one and whole." Yet, although Judaism "was a near perfect fit," she explained in a 2017 interview, "it was created for a single tribe of people."
Wislon then turned her focus to Islam, which she saw as "a sort of a deal between you and God." The 9/11 terrorist attack set back her religious studies—fearing she had misjudged the religion—but later resumed her studies.[2] After graduation, on the way to Cairo where she had taken a job to teach English, Wilson experienced a converstion to Islam: "I made peace with God. I called him Allah."
Living in Egypt, and struggling to negotiate a new culture, Wilson met Omar, a young physics teacher, who offered to serve as a cultural guide, and within a matter of months, the two became engaged. Later, the couple moved to the United States where Wilson returned to her writing career, and Omar worked as a legal advocate for refugees.
Jouralism
During her time in Cairo, Wilson began contributing articles to the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times Magazine and National Post. She was also a regular contributor to the now-defunct Egyptian opposition weekly Cairo Magazine. Wilson was the first Western journalist to be granted a private interview with Ali Gomaa after his promotion to the position of Grand Mufti of Egypt.
Wilson's experiences in Egypt are the subject of her 2010 memoir, The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam, which was named a Seattle Times Best Book the same year.
In 2007, Wilson wrote her first graphic novel, Cairo, with art by M.K. Perker; it was named one of the best graphic novels of 2007 by Publishers Weekly, The Edmonton Journal/CanWest News, and Comics Worth Reading. In 2008 the paperback edition was named one of Best Graphic Novels for High School Students in 2008 by School Library Journal, and one of 2009's Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens by the American Library Association.
Comics
A year later, in 2008, Wilson launched her first ongoing comic series, "Air." Reunited with her Cairo graphic artist M.K. Perker, "Air" received the Eisner Award for Best New Series of 2009, while NPR named it one of the top comics of 2009.
Wilson also wrote "Superman" fill-in issues #704 and 706 of Superman, the five-issue mini-series "Vixen: Return of the Lion." and "The Outsiders." She then revived "Mystic,"a four-issue miniseries for Marvel Comics (with art by David Lopez)—although a CrossGen revival, Willow's version of "Mystic" bears little resemblance to its previous incarnation.
In 2014, Marvel debuted a new "Ms. Marvel" series written by Wilson. The book stars Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenager living in Jersey City, New Jersey, who takes up the mantle—now that the previous Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers, has taken the name Captain Marvel.
Although worried about criticism, Wilson did not believe Kamala should wear a hijab because the majority of teenage Muslim Americans do not cover their heads. Yet despite their initial concern, Kamala was received positively—some seeing her as a symbol for equality and religious diversity.
In 2018, Wilson began writing "Wonder Woman" from DC Comics. The character will battle Ares in an arc entitled "The Just War."
Novels
Wilson also turned to novels: 2013 saw the release of her debut, Alif the Unseen. The book won the 2013 World Fantasy Award for best novel.
Wilson's next fantasy novel came out in 2019 —The Bird King, the story of a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, as the new Christian monarchy begins its rule. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 3/18/2019 .)
Book Reviews
G. Willow Wilson whips up a head-spinning blend of realism, fantasy and history…. And indeed, life in the palace is evocatively sketched. But the chase grows tiresome, stretching on for so long that the reader may begin to wonder why Fatima and Hassan are so important to bag. The novel comes perilously close to reading like an action film, complete with the perfect villain, Luz, with a strange, terrifying splotch on her eye…. Fatima and Hassan’s arduous, sometimes cartoonishly violent journey makes this an uneven book, though a deeply imaginative ending—set on an island that may have sprung from Hassan’s mind—redeems the travel-worn story.
Priyanka Kuman - Washington Post
[A] swashbuckling… novel amid an epic clash between cultures on the Iberian peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition.… Though marketed as literary fiction, this book is pure fantasy, and teen readers especially will relish suspending their disbelief.
Publishers Weekly
With… The Bird King, [Wilson] has cemented her place as one of the brightest lights of fantasy…. Wilson’s tale unfolds with all the grace and swiftness of a classic magical adventure, with strange encounters and new lands waiting with each turn of the page.
BookPage
★ A fun, immersive adventure that moves at a brisk pace through lush settings, across dangerous terrain, and eventually out to the open sea.
Booklist
★ A lovely fable…. The worldbuilding is well-constructed but is primarily a support for Wilson's chief focus on character…. Wilson also delicately explores the nature of a love outside the physical…. A thoughtful and beautiful balance between the real and the fantastic.
Kirkus Reviews
A breathtaking historical fantasy…. To say Wilson is a talented storyteller does not adequately capture the magnificent dimensions of her work…. The Bird King [is] a more-than-worthy follow-up to Alif the Unseen. It’s not necessary to read one before the other, but only a fool would miss them both.
Shelf Awareness
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.)
I Found You
Lisa Jewell, 2016 (2017, U.S.)
Atria
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501154591
Summary
In a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside.
Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.
Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. Their annual trip to the quaint seaside town is passing by uneventfully, until an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable—and it’s not just that he’s playing the role of protective older brother.
Two decades of secrets, a missing husband, and a man with no memory are at the heart of this brilliant new novel, filled with the "beautiful writing, believable characters, pacey narrative, and dark secrets" (Daily Mail, UK) that make Lisa Jewell so beloved by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 19, 1968
• Where—London, England, UK
• Education—Epsom School of Art & Design
• Awards—Melissa Nathan Award For Comedy Romance
• Currently—lives in London, England
Lisa Jewell is a British author of popular fiction. Her books number some 15, including most recently The House We Grew Up In (2013), The Third Wife (2014), The Girls in the Garden (U.S. title of 2016), I found You (2016), and Watching You (2018).
She was educated at St. Michael's Catholic Grammar School in Finchley, north London, leaving school after one day in the sixth form to do an art foundation course at Barnet College followed by a diploma in fashion illustration at Epsom School of Art & Design.
She worked in fashion retail for several years, namely Warehouse and Thomas Pink.
After being made redundant, Jewell accepted a challenge from her friend to write three chapters of a novel in exchange for dinner at her favourite restaurant. Those three chapters were eventually developed into Jewell's debut novel Ralph's Party, which then became the UK's bestselling debut novel in 1999.
Jewell is one of the most popular authors writing in the UK today, and in 2008 was awarded the Melissa Nathan Award For Comedy Romance for her novel 31 Dream Street.
She currently lives in Swiss Cottage, London with her husband Jascha and two daughters. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 6/22/2016.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
One word: wow! This latest offering from Jewell starts off strong and keeps readers riveted until the very last word.… [T]his book is "unreliable narrator" at its best!
RT Reviews
(Starred review.) [T]horoughly compelling.… Jewell is a wonderful storyteller. Her characters are believable, her writing is strong and poetic, and her narrative is infused with just enough intrigue to keep the pages turning. —Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA
Library Journal
Full of suspense yet emotionally grounded…Fans of Liane Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, and Carla Buckley will adore this peek inside a gated community that truly takes care of its own, no matter the consequences.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Lisa Jewell is a brilliant storyteller, creating suspenseful yet believable novels time and again. I Found You is no exception—filled with intriguing characters connected in startling ways. Quickly paced yet delicately nuanced, this novel is sure to appeal to fans of Big Little Lies and The Woman in Cabin 10.
Shelf Awareness
[T]he plot moves a bit too quickly for a full explanation of everyone's identity and motivations. Yet even these too-short character back stories serve to circle back and reinforce the novel's central question: how much does knowing a person in the present count for? Dark and moody, this is a mystery with substance.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Before they ever speak, Gray has a decidedly negative impression of Mark. His family chalks it up to jealousy and possessiveness. How big a role do you think those biases played in shaping Gray’s apprehension around Mark? Is it possible to determine when you should trust your instincts and when you are being unfairly prejudicial? How might you tell the difference?
2. Mark reveals his jealousy of Gray and Kirsty when he says, "you live in your lovely, cozy little mummy-daddy-brother-sister bubble" (page 201). Did it surprise you that Gray’s envy and resentment was reciprocated? Considering what we learn about Mark’s family background, did you feel sympathy for him? Why, or why not?
3. Gray notes that there were plenty of girls on the beach who were, by appearances, a better match for Mark, and who weren’t accompanied by their families. What do you think initially attracted Mark to Kirsty? Why was his attention drawn to her rather than other women on the beach? Discuss.
4. When asked about how Carl treated her, Lily says "He worshipped me…it’s more than love. It’s obsession" (page 205). Later, he writes her a letter saying "I love you more than I have ever loved anyone or anything in my whole stupid life" (page 326). Do you believe he loved her? Why or why not?
5. After discovering what Frank did before he lost his memory, Alice chooses to forgive him. Would you have forgiven him if you were in her position?
6. Both Lily and Alice are attracted to men who have done terrible things in their pasts, and feel on some level they shouldn’t love anymore. In what ways do these two loves parallel each other? In what ways are they portrayed differently from each other? Compare and contrast, discussing the reasons behind these similarities and differences.
7. When Lily reports her husband’s disappearance to the police, she pretends to understand what a policewoman is saying because "she’s already sure this woman thinks she is an idiot" (page 39). Discuss with your group examples from your own life in which you saw or experienced someone making assumptions about intelligence as a result of cultural or language barriers. Have you ever inadvertently made similar assumptions yourself?
8. In response to Alice offering a lost stranger a jacket, her friend Derry tells her not to get involved. Repeatedly throughout the novel, various characters question whether Alice’s generosity is advisable, or if she is unwisely endangering her family. Did you see her actions as kind, or foolish? If the stranger had turned out to be Lily’s missing husband, would that have changed your ultimate opinion of Alice? Where would you draw the line between being charitable and leaving yourself overly vulnerable?
9. When Frank is trying to remember who he is, some of his memories are more accessible than others. For example, he is unable to remember to cut a bagel in half before toasting it, but he quickly rediscovers his ability to draw. Which of your memories or talents do you think would remain or be easily regained if you forgot who you were?
10. Lily unabashedly describes herself as a "very dark person" (page 205). What do you think she means by that? Do you think that is an accurate self-assessment? Do you consider yourself or any of your loved ones dark people?
11. Frank insists that he is not as bad a person as Mark, saying of his actions "It makes me wrong, but it doesn’t make me a monster" (page 302). Do you agree with this statement? Are there circumstances in which revenge—even violence— is justified? If so, where do you think the line should be drawn? How do you differentiate between justification and simply the motive for a crime?
12. Mark’s aunt says of his parents "They thought they could heal all the wounds and make up for all the hurt and unfortunately they were wrong. It was hardwired" (page 307). Do you agree that there is a point in a child’s life when it is too late to heal the effects of trauma, or to rehabilitate selfish and destructive behavior? Whether you agree or disagree, what do you think Mark’s family could have done differently to help?
13. One of the major themes I Found You contends with is how our memories shape us as people. Are there aspects of our personalities that are innate? Do our memories determine who we are attracted to, as Frank wonders when he questions whether he would have been attracted to Alice if he met her before his fugue state? Are some personal attributes more or less impacted by our experiences than others? Discuss.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)