"masterful . . . each page in this massive book features exquisite descriptions, evocations of a particular time and place, populated by fascinating characters . . ."
“Onuzo has created a character that readers will want to cheer for. She has also crafted a believable and powerful story filled with hope and forgiveness.”
“A charming story that weaves fairy tale, mystery, and historical importance with a good dose of romance, The Secret Book of Flora Lea will appeal to all ages, as the author unfurl
“With well-developed characters and powerful, descriptive narrative and dialog, Kelly captures the reader’s heart and mind. This is a triumphant, wild journey . . .”
Alice McDermott’s first novel, A Bigamist’s Daughter, was published in 1982, when the Village Voice praised it for avoiding the fantasy that “growth is everyone’s birthright, and
A fortysomething, midlist novelist sees her husband off to work one morning. By evening, he is in a coma; a few days later, he is dead, leaving her with two young sons.
“paints the conflicts and stories that define the ordinary and memorable, finely etched with myriad details, that altogether reflect back on the readers’ essential humanity.”
It’s interesting that the title of Ian McEwan’s wide-angle and engrossing family history is Lessons, because his protagonist, Roland Baines, is inclined to abandon his teachers.
“A good gift for readers over a wide spectrum, especially those who like their exploration laced with a hint of mystique, mystery, and the mystic in a tropical locale.”
If memory is indispensable for our sense of a coherent, continued self, what happens when memories fragment, when trauma untracks our understanding of the past? Who, then, do we become?
“The book’s suspense rests on whether and when Cal will finally turn to face his lifelong attacker. What will he lose, in what sequence? How humiliated and abased will he become?