Annie Peters

FictionSpeculative Fiction

Spotlight: Visions of the future

Feature by Annie Peters

Speculative fiction allows the constants of our reality to change, giving readers a glimpse of how those shifts might affect their own lives. This trio of novels use time travel and prophesy to craft compelling, all-too-human stories.

In Kate Mascarenhas’ superb debut novel, The Psychology of Time Travel, four female scientists in 1967 discover the secret of time travel. At the news conference announcing their discovery, however, one of the women, Barbara, has a mental breakdown that threatens to undermine the value of their discovery. To protect their work, the other three scientists exile Barbara from the project. 

Jumping to 2017, Barbara, now a grandmother, receives a newspaper clipping of a murder that will occur in the future. Her granddaughter, Ruby, is convinced that one of the scientists is trying to warn Barbara of her impending murder. Ruby must follow this clue from the future to unravel the mystery and save her grandmother.

Mascarenhas conjures a world in which time travel not only exists but also has its own legal system, currency and lingo. She meticulously weaves the stories of multiple female characters as they—both older and younger versions of themselves—jump back and forth in time to create a delightfully complex, multilayered plot. To all of this, Mascarenhas adds a thoroughly satisfying murder mystery. The Psychology of Time Travel heralds the arrival of a master storyteller. 

Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then provides another enjoyable venture into time travel. In this novel, Kin Stewart is caught between two worlds separated by almost 150 years. Originally a time-traveling agent with the Temporal Corruption Bureau in 2142, Kin becomes stranded in 1996 when a mission goes awry. Breaking bureau rules, Kin takes a job in IT and starts a family as his memories of 2142 degrade. When an accident alerts a retriever agent to return Kin to 2142, where only two weeks have passed, Kin must confront his divided loyalties between his adolescent daughter, who may be eliminated as a timeline corruption, and the family he cannot remember in 2142. 

Although Chen’s novel is set in a futuristic world, it is ultimately about the bond between a father and his daughter. While Kin’s dilemma is one that readers will never face, they will be drawn in by the human questions at its heart.

In Sharma Shields’ The Cassandra, young Mildred Groves has the gift of prophesy—and the curse that no one wants to heed her warnings. Mildred escapes an abusive home and takes a job as a secretary at Washington’s Hanford research facility in 1945, where workers are sworn to secrecy as scientists create “the product”—plutonium for the first atomic bombs. At first, Mildred is happy to be a part of something so big and important. However, as the product comes closer to completion, she begins to have nightmarish visions of the destruction that will be wrought on the people of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Hanford facility. She feels compelled to warn those in power, even as her own well-being disintegrates. But to what end? 

Shields has written a brilliant modern retelling of the classic myth of Cassandra. While this is not an easy novel to read, as the imagery becomes increasingly gruesome, it is a pleasure to be immersed in a myth so deftly woven into an apt historical context. The Cassandra should not be missed by those interested in Greek mythology, the Hanford project or beautifully crafted stories. 

 

This article was originally published in the February 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Speculative fiction allows the constants of our reality to change, giving readers a glimpse of how those shifts might affect their own lives. This trio of novels use time travel and prophesy to craft compelling, all-too-human stories.

In Kate Mascarenhas’ superb debut novel,…

Fiction

Thrillers of modern womanhood

Feature by Annie Peters

In this thought-provoking trio of new novels, Helen Phillips, Jo Baker and Chandler Baker immerse their readers in the dangers and anxieties inherent to modern womanhood.

In The Need, Molly, a dedicated paleobotanist, works in a fossil quarry that yields baffling specimens, including unheard-of plant varieties and artifacts that are familiar yet utterly strange. The latter, which includes a Bible in which the text is recognizable with one unsettling difference, begin to draw tourists and conspiracy theorists to the site. At the same time, Molly is also an exhausted, nursing mother of two young children whose husband is out of the country on business. One night, Molly’s world turns upside down when she discovers a masked intruder in her home who has a startlingly intimate familiarity with Molly’s life.

Dabbling in the supernatural, Helen Phillips has created a fascinating plot through which she explores the deep, conflicting tensions surrounding modern motherhood, personal identity and the nature of our existence in the universe. Moreover, Phillips’ novel will have a powerful, visceral impact on anyone who has parented young children. The Need will keep readers rapidly turning pages as Molly navigates conflicting emotions in a chillingly surreal landscape.

Jo Baker tackles a very different threat: sexual assault. In The Body Lies, a stranger attacks the unnamed narrator near her London home. Three years later, to escape the memory, the narrator seeks a university job in the isolated countryside north of London. Once there, she meets her creative writing students, including a troubled young man named Nicholas Palmer who insists he is writing experimental “art” in which he only writes “the truth.” While struggling with an impossible workload, a young son and a strained marriage, the narrator becomes increasingly concerned for and disconcerted by Nicholas, as she becomes a character in his distorted version of the truth. All the while, a sense of danger and mystery pervades the novel in the form of a frozen corpse left in the countryside.

Baker (Longbourn) boldly and refreshingly insists on changing the narrative surrounding sexual assault. The Body Lies is not another story of a silent, naked, dead girl. Rather, Baker brilliantly weaves in Nicholas’ concept of truth and shows how it plays out in his writing, so the narrator’s ability to voice her own truth creates a powerful contrast. Indeed, this novel is the story of a survivor, not a victim.

In Whisper Network, Chandler Baker takes on sexual harassment in corporate America. Sloane, Ardie and Grace are in-house lawyers working for a Dallas-based athleisure apparel company. When the CEO suddenly dies, it becomes clear that Ames Garrett will most likely fill the role. Ames, however, has a well-earned reputation, whispered among female employees, for sexually harassing and assaulting women in the workplace for over a decade. Moreover, he shows no signs of stopping, if his actions toward the newest employee are any indicator. Sloane, Ardie and Grace must decide whether to bring Ames’ actions to light before his promotion. Unforeseeable consequences of their choice soon threaten all three women.

Baker has written a bitingly funny yet insightful novel detailing the pitfalls of being a woman in corporate America today. Throughout this well-crafted novel, Baker tells the story primarily through dialogue but also employs deposition and police interview transcripts. This structure creates a delicious sense of suspense that will keep the reader guessing. It’s the perfect choice for book clubs seeking an entertaining book that will stimulate thought-provoking discussion.

In this thought-provoking trio of new novels, Helen Phillips, Jo Baker and Chandler Baker immerse their readers in the dangers and anxieties inherent to modern womanhood.  
NonfictionNatureCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Gift books: For the gardener, the composter, the lover of flowers

Feature by Annie Peters

As in one of the loveliest lines attributed to Margaret Atwood, “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

For those who love to spend time outside in their garden, four entertaining books on clouds, bees, flower scents and Emily Dickinson’s gardens will provide ample diversion during the cold, wet days of winter.

A Cloud a Day by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
How often do you really notice the beauty and diversity of clouds? Readers of Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s A Cloud a Day will be hard-pressed to ignore the skies again. He has gathered a year’s worth of cloud pictures from all over the world, many of which were taken by members of his Cloud Appreciation Society. Thought-provoking quotations and explanations of lesser-known cloud formations accompany the photos. He even includes clouds from unexpected places like distant planets and famous paintings. Fun charts aid readers in navigating the book by helping them locate certain cloud formations, artworks, optical effects and imaginative descriptions. In his introduction, Pretor-Pinney explains that we live upon an ocean of gasses, and that it would improve the quality of our lives to spend a bit of time noticing that ever-changing ocean around us. After perusing this enlightening book, many readers will agree.

The Little Book of Bees by Hilary Kearney
Most of us are aware that our honeybees are endangered, but few may realize how fascinating these helpful creatures really are or the ways we can support them. Hilary Kearney’s The Little Book of Bees proves an excellent remedy for these shortcomings. A beekeeper, writer and artist who hosts workshops for other beekeepers, Kearney starts by providing brief, digestible descriptions of flowers, pollination and bee evolution. She goes on to describe bee anatomy, the many types of bees and their various social organizations. Next, she turns to honey: what it is, the different types and its uses. Finally, she offers an introduction to beekeeping, an explanation of why bees are endangered and a list of easy steps the average person can take to help them. For readers who wish to know more, Kearney provides a brief list of additional resources. For all its usefulness, The Little Book of Bees is also filled with wonderful illustrations by Amy Holliday and fascinating tidbits of bee trivia, making this book not only a treasure trove of information for those interested in bees but also delightfully entertaining.

The Scentual Garden by Ken Druse
Bees naturally bring flowers to mind, and Ken Druse delivers a unique approach to flower gardening in The Scentual Garden. Druse focuses on plants solely through their significance to our sense of smell. He begins by providing a brief but provocative explanation of why plants produce a scent, how our olfactory sense works and methods for capturing scent. By far the bulk of the book, however, is an encyclopedia of fragrant plants with incredibly sensual descriptions that will help even the most dejected gardener endure the darkest days of winter. The most striking aspect of the book is the absolutely exquisite garden photographs by Druse and botanical photographs by Ellen Hoverkamp. While the information contained in the encyclopedia may prove eye-opening to new and experienced gardeners alike, the photographs make The Scentual Garden a gorgeous addition to any home.

Emily Dickenson’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell
Finally, for gardeners with an affection for poetry, Marta McDowell’s Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life may prove a perfect choice. In this newly revised and expanded edition, McDowell, a past Gardener-in-Residence at the Emily Dickinson Museum, first surveys Dickinson’s life, describing the garden at the poet’s lifelong home throughout the seasons. McDowell frequently quotes Dickinson’s poetry to highlight pertinent connections between her garden and her writing.  Although no photographs of Dickinson’s garden taken during her lifetime have been discovered, McDowell includes lovely hand-drawn botanical illustrations by Dickinson’s contemporaries and colorful, present-day photos of some of the plants in question, as well as vintage and modern photographs of significant buildings and landscapes. McDowell also includes chapters on how to plant a garden similar to Dickinson’s, the painstaking efforts to restore Dickinson’s garden and a detailed list of the plants cultivated by the Dickinson family. Taken as a whole, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life gives readers the real sense that they can almost slip back in time and survey Dickinson’s garden with her.

As in one of the loveliest lines attributed to Margaret Atwood, “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
Fiction

Life on battle-scarred land

Feature by Annie Peters

The political, social, technological and environmental repercussions of the American Civil War are still felt today. Two excellent new novels join the canon of Civil War fiction, highlighting this crucial period from different perspectives: one from a community of emancipated slaves, the other from a former Confederate soldier roaming the Texas landscape.

★ Conjure Women

In her stunning debut novel, Conjure Women, Afia Atakora explores life during the Reconstruction era for a community of formerly enslaved people living amid the ruins of their old plantation. Rue, a young woman versed in healing, midwifery and crafting curses—skills learned from her hoodoo-practicing mother, Miss May Belle—assists at the birth of a strange, pale baby born in a black caul and with black eyes. When a devastating illness begins rapidly killing the community’s children while the pale child remains seemingly unaffected, the superstitious community, recently “saved” by a charismatic traveling preacher, begins to turn against Rue and the child. 

As chapters toggle between life on the plantation before and after the war, Atakora slowly reveals the complex web of stories tying Rue, May Belle and the plantation owner’s strong-willed daughter, Varina, together. Atakora, a Pushcart Prize nominee who earned her MFA from Columbia University, relies on first-person accounts, diaries and autobiographies from the period to inform her writing, to great effect. The community’s characters and the harsh realities of the black experience before and during Reconstruction come vividly to life. At the same time, Atakora paces her novel beautifully, slowly unwinding the plot in unexpected ways as she examines a relatively unexplored aspect of American history.

Simon the Fiddler

In Simon the Fiddler, bestselling author Paulette Jiles, whose novel News of the World was a National Book Award finalist, begins with a premise that seems impossibly far-fetched: A penniless young man finds love at first sight with a woman who is essentially a prisoner of her employer, just as she is about to leave for a distant town in a wild landscape. But Jiles makes the impossible plausible. 

Twenty-three-year-old fiddler Simon Boudlin avoids conscription into the Confederate Army until the last days of the war. After one of the war’s final battles, Simon becomes part of a group of Union and Confederate musicians brought in to provide music for an event to celebrate the Confederacy’s impending surrender. While playing, Simon sees the beautiful Doris Dillon, an indentured Irish governess to the daughter of a dangerous Union colonel. After speaking only a few words to her, Simon is completely smitten, but he and Doris must unfortunately go their separate ways. 

Despite owning nothing but his talent and a Markneukirchen violin, Simon decides he will marry Doris and purchase land for them to settle. Without a plan but with his goal firmly in mind, Simon sets forth with a ragtag band of musicians through Texas, which is still transitioning from the war. Simon overcomes hardships and danger to make steady progress toward his dream, but when he reaches San Antonio, where Doris lives with the colonel and his family, he faces his most difficult trial: rescuing Doris from the menacing colonel in a state still under military law. 

In this enthralling novel, Jiles pairs the hard-luck terrain of her Texas setting with a succinct, unadorned writing style. Simon the Fiddler not only entertains but also brings a fascinating period in Texas history to life.

Two novels offer intimate new perspectives on the Civil War-era South.
FictionComic Fiction

Separation Anxiety

Review by Annie Peters

Judy Vogel is caught in a downward spiral. She is mourning both the recent loss of her parents and the anticipated loss of her best friend, who is dying of cancer. Judy’s promising career as a children’s author has stalled, and she now supports her family by writing for a wellness website. She has also lost all sense of connection with her husband, a pothead who suffers from severe anxiety and works as a “snackologist,” but they cannot afford to divorce. They are separated but live together in the same house and pretend everything is normal for their teenage son, Teddy. 

But what Judy grieves the most is the increasing loss of closeness to her only child as he grows into a young man. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Judy discovers a strange coping mechanism when she begins to carry their sheltie, Charlotte, everywhere in an old baby sling, to almost everyone’s dismay. 

In this intriguing novel, Laura Zigman doesn’t sugarcoat but instead lays bare Judy’s feelings with heartbreaking honesty. Every middle-aged woman who has ever felt invisible, lost or depressed will connect with some aspect of Judy’s life. Indeed, Zigman labels her work “semi-autobiographical fiction,” which may explain its devastating authenticity. At the same time, Zigman cleverly wraps her story in genuine hilarity. Judy’s continuous, cynical commentary is priceless, especially when discussing Teddy’s Montessori school. 

What at first might seem like a depressing premise is in fact both refreshingly truthful and highly entertaining. As a result of this unique mix, this novel is both unpredictable and delightfully original. For those seeking a good laugh and a good cry, look no further than Separation Anxiety.

In this intriguing novel, Laura Zigman doesn’t sugarcoat but instead lays bare Judy’s feelings with heartbreaking honesty. Every middle-aged woman who has ever felt invisible, lost or depressed will connect with some aspect of Judy’s life.

FictionHistorical Fiction

A Long Petal of the Sea

Review by Annie Peters

Storyteller par excellence Isabel Allende brings to life an epic saga in A Long Petal of the Sea.

During the Spanish Civil War in 1938, medic Victor Dalmau aids the fight against ruthless General Franco by tending the wounded under the worst possible conditions, while Roser Bruguera, a young piano student, becomes the lover of Victor’s soldier brother. After Victor’s brother is killed and the Franco-led fascists gain control of Spain, Victor and Roser, fearing even greater atrocities, join the sea of desperate refugees fleeing to France. There, they are detained under horrific conditions in a camp by the sea.

To escape their precarious status as refugees, Victor and Roser marry without love to gain passage on Paulo Neruda’s Winnipeg, the real-life ship that carried more than 2,000 Spanish refugees to a new life in Chile in 1939. Over the next 55 years, and through the rise and fall of another cruel dictator, Victor and Roser build a life together in South America, based first on shared loyalty, and later on something more.

Against a backdrop of violent political and social upheaval, the lives of Allende’s characters quietly unfold in unexpected ways that prove both riveting and satisfying. Allende, a recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award, explores what it means to live in freedom and under tyranny, to feel displaced and at home.

As with Allende’s bestselling novel House of Spirits, subtle touches of magical realism add richness to the story. Although Allende writes of political events and personalities from distant lands and decades in the past, readers may feel a very real sense that these events have much to say about the world today. Some may find hope in Victor’s and Roser’s abilities not just to survive such dark times but also to eventually heal and thrive.

For those familiar with Allende’s earlier work, this novel will not disappoint. For those new to Allende’s writing, A Long Petal of the Sea will prove a captivating introduction.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Isabel Allende on her favorite bookstores and libraries.

Although Allende writes of political events and personalities from distant lands and decades in the past, readers may feel a very real sense that these events have much to say about the world today. Some may find hope in Victor’s and Roser’s abilities not just to survive such dark times but also to eventually heal and thrive.
FictionHistorical Fiction

The Glittering Hour

Review by Annie Peters

Set in London and alternating between 1926 and 1936, The Glittering Hour is the story of Selena Lennox. Having lost her beloved brother during World War I, Selena understands too well the brevity of life and intends to live every moment to the fullest. 

Selena and her lively companions are collectively known as the Bright Young People. To the dismay of Selena’s staid, upper-class family, her world is an unending series of fast cars, beautiful dresses, wild parties, crazy games and the latest dances, all fueled by alcohol and drugs and documented by photographers. Then one night, Selena meets the totally unsuitable Lawrence Weston, a struggling artist from poor beginnings who bears his own grief. Their encounter will eventually open Selena’s eyes and force her to make a choice that will change their lives.

The Glittering Hour is an exceptional novel about choosing how to live amid powerful grief and true love. Iona Grey, author of Letters to the Lost, has written a moving story that makes readers feel bereft to leave Selena and Lawrence behind at the book’s end in the way that only the best novels can do. Grey’s eye for descriptive detail gives a sumptuousness to almost every scene, and the delicious recklessness of 1920s London comes alive on the page. She is also masterful at using flashbacks and letters to slowly tease out the influences and motivations of her characters—and those of an entire postwar generation.

For readers looking for a tremendously entertaining, emotionally charged story, look no further. The Glittering Hour is just the ticket. 

For readers looking for a tremendously entertaining, emotionally charged story, look no further.
FictionHistorical Fiction

The Giver of Stars

Review by Annie Peters

Ill-suited to the stultifying environment and prospects of England, Alice jumps at the chance to escape to America by marrying Bennet, the wealthy, handsome son of a coal-mine owner. However, soon after arriving in Bennet’s small town in Depression-era Kentucky, Alice realizes that problems in her marriage, a controlling father-in-law and small-town gossip are equally suffocating. 

When Eleanor Roosevelt creates a mobile library system as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, Alice volunteers to become one of the librarians on horseback to escape her father-in-law’s house. As a librarian, Alice joins four others: unconventional Margery, who lives by her own rules; boisterous Beth, who has eight brothers; Izzy, the library organizer’s pampered daughter, who wears a leg brace and has a beautiful voice; and Sophia, a black woman who risks backlash to work for the mobile library, in violation of the state’s segregation laws. 

Together, these women and their horses face hardship and danger to bring books and information to the poverty-stricken backwoods of Kentucky. In return, they find companionship and fulfillment. The library’s future is threatened, however, when Margery and Alice step too far outside the accepted norms of society, angering the powerful patriarchy of the town. 

Jojo Moyes, bestselling author of Me Before You, has written a wonderful novel based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky. Moyes’ research is evident, as her writing completely immerses readers in the world of a small, Depression-era coal-mining town—the class structure, the ignorance and the violence, as well as the overwhelming beauty of the surroundings and the strength of character required to survive. Moyes has written unforgettable characters who come alive on the page. All five women, but especially Alice and Margery, are written with such depth that readers may wish they, too, could join this tight circle of remarkable women. 

A heartwarming page turner, The Giver of Stars is certain to be Moyes’ next bestseller and should not be missed. 

The bestselling author of Me Before You immerses readers in a wonderful novel based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky.
Science Fiction & FantasyFictionFantasy

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Review by Annie Peters

Set in the early 1900s, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is the story of January Scaller, whose father travels around the world to find unique curiosities for his wealthy employer, Mr. Locke. January remains behind with Locke, who keeps her dressed in finery, storing her as carefully as the other specimens he possesses. 

On the day before she turns 17, January discovers a mysterious book that smells of sea and spices in one of the many rooms of Locke’s house. As she reads the book, she learns that certain locations in the world are doors to other worlds—and that her entire life is tied to those doors. With the help of a few friends, January decides to escape Locke and his strange society of archaeologists and try to find her father before she no longer can. 

Part-time historian Alix E. Harrow has written a stunning debut novel with inventive worlds, sumptuous language and impeccably crafted details. Several of Harrow’s characters challenge traditional stereotypes in interesting ways, and January in particular is a refreshingly fierce female protagonist. Harrow paces this action-packed novel beautifully, slowly revealing the truth as the reader races through the pages to discover the ultimate conclusion. 

Readers seeking a fresh fantasy with an enduring love story need look no further, and they’ll be left wistfully hoping to stumble upon doors of their own.

Set in the early 1900s, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is the story of January Scaller, whose father travels around the world to find unique curiosities for his wealthy employer, Mr. Locke. January remains behind with Locke, who keeps her dressed in finery, storing…

FictionPopular Fiction

The Oysterville Sewing Circle

Review by Annie Peters

Caroline Shelby’s life has been turned upside down. First, scandal destroys the promising clothing designer’s budding career in New York. Then, Caroline’s close friend dies suddenly, leaving her the legal guardian of her friend’s two young children, Flick and Addie, a task for which she feels totally unprepared. 

With nothing to keep her in New York, Caroline drives cross-country with her two grieving charges to Oysterville, Washington, the hometown she left years earlier and to which she never envisioned returning. There, she finds her family and town both familiar and changed. She must also face her first love, Will, who married her then-best friend, Sierra. Returning to the fabric shop where she discovered her love of design, Caroline slowly begins to rebuild her life and career and even discovers her mothering skills. She also assuages her guilt in failing to help her late friend by creating the Oysterville Sewing Circle, a group for women who’ve experienced abuse. 

With The Oysterville Sewing Circle, Susan Wiggs tackles the painful subject of domestic violence in a life-affirming way. While Wiggs doesn’t shy away from addressing abuse in its myriad forms through the stories of the women in the sewing circle, a central theme of this novel is the healing power of family and community, and especially women supporting one another. Furthermore, as a resident of one of the Puget Sound islands, Wiggs writes with an intimate knowledge of the area, which makes her fictional town of Oysterville come alive on the page. Readers will long to visit and meet her characters in the local shops. 

Author of over 50 novels, including the Lakeshore Chronicles, Wiggs has written another compelling novel that will grab readers’ hearts, hold their attention and leave them with a sense of hope. 

Caroline Shelby’s life has been turned upside down. First, scandal destroys the promising clothing designer’s budding career in New York. Then, Caroline’s close friend dies suddenly, leaving her the legal guardian of her friend’s two young children, Flick and Addie, a task for which she feels totally unprepared. 

FictionHistorical Fiction

Paris, 7 A.M.

Review by Annie Peters

American poet and short story writer Elizabeth Bishop devotedly chronicled her life in her journals with the curious exception of a three-week period in June of 1937. That three-week gap, during which a young Bishop traveled through pre-World War II France with friends, provides the catalyst for Liza Wieland’s absorbing new work, Paris, 7 A.M.

The novel, which opens in 1930 while Bishop is a student at Vassar College, meticulously combines the ample facts of Bishop’s life with reimagined events of 1937. In this coming-of-age story, Wieland provides glimpses into Bishop’s painful childhood while detailing her burgeoning sexuality and rebellion, nascent alcoholism, close circle of female friends and battles with writer’s block. As she struggles to finds her place in French literary circles, and as fear of fascism spreads through Europe, Bishop is drawn into an underground movement secretly rescuing Jewish infants in Normandy and transporting them to a convent in Paris.

This creative retelling of Bishop’s life provides an intriguing look at a complicated woman and writer. Moreover, Wieland’s choice to write in the eternal present with a limited third-person point of view to reveal Bishop’s thoughts and keen perceptions of those around her lends a particular freshness to the novel. Such skillful writing is not surprising, however, as Wieland has received several fellowships, including one from the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts, and was the 2017 winner of the Robert Penn Warren Award for fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Although those already familiar with Elizabeth Bishop may appreciate seeing this famous American writer in her youth through Wieland’s eyes, enjoyment of this novel does not require prior knowledge of Bishop. However, readers should not be surprised if, on finishing Paris, 7 A.M., they discover a new curiosity to learn even more about Bishop’s compelling life and work.

A three-week gap in American writer Elizabeth Bishop’s journals provides the catalyst for Liza Wieland’s new novel, Paris, 7 A.M.
FictionShort Stories

Orange World and Other Stories

Review by Annie Peters

A young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl he discovers in a Northern European peat bog. A young woman unwittingly becomes the human host of a Joshua tree, while her boyfriend struggles to understand this startling change in their budding relationship. During a nostalgic visit to a tornado auction, an old man impulsively buys and rears one last tornado as he reviews his life choices. A woman strikes a bargain to breastfeed the devil to protect her unborn son.

These are just a few of the brilliantly inventive premises of Karen Russell’s wonderful new collection of short stories. However, Orange World and Other Stories is so much more than fresh plots. Russell ties these seemingly disparate tales together with a pervading theme of alienation: from the past, from family, from nature. Furthermore, despite their surreal nature, Russell grounds each story in human experience, both poignant and hilarious in turn. In “Orange World,” a mother is desperate to protect her infant son after the pain of repeated miscarriage. In “Bog Girl: A Romance,” another mother makes the same remarks about her son’s new, albeit dead, girlfriend that mothers around the world have made. Underlying all of this is the exquisite beauty of Russell’s sentences, which will repeatedly surprise readers with their imagery and masterful language.

Having received her MFA from Columbia, Russell has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Winner of numerous awards and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Russell is already the bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Without a doubt, Orange World and Other Stories is destined for a similar fate. For lovers of excellent writing, this book should not be missed.

A young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl he discovers in a Northern European peat bog. A young woman unwittingly becomes the human host of a Joshua tree, while her boyfriend struggles to understand this startling change in their budding relationship. During a nostalgic visit to a tornado auction, an old man impulsively buys and rears one last tornado as he reviews his life choices. A woman strikes a bargain to breastfeed the devil to protect her unborn son.

FictionLiterary Fiction

The Museum of Modern Love

Review by Annie Peters

BookPage Top Pick in Fiction, December 2018

Arky Levin, a 50-year-old film score composer, has reached a strange moment in his life. Recently separated from his wife under disconcerting circumstances and estranged from his only child, Arky finds himself alone in a new apartment in New York and purposefully cut off from friends. This should provide the silence he craves to write his latest film score, but instead he just feels lost. In this frame of mind, he visits the Museum of Modern Art and discovers a performance piece called The Artist Is Present, based on a real 2010 performance by renowned artist Marina Abramović. In this piece, Abramović sits for 75 days at a table as throngs of visitors stand for hours to take turns sitting across from her, still and silent.

Using Abramović’s seven steps for creative projects—awareness, resistance, submission, work, reflection, courage and the gift—as an organizational device for her novel, author Heather Rose details the performance’s almost mystical effect on Arky and an array of other characters as they return to the piece day after day. Other characters include Abramović herself, a young Ph.D. student from Amsterdam, a recent widow from the South, a radio personality and even Abramović’s late mother, each of whom brings his or her own unique experiences and responses to the piece.

Already a winner of several literary prizes in Australia and short-listed for the Australian Literary Society’s 2017 Gold Medal, The Museum of Modern Love is an engaging, multifaceted meditation on the meaning of life and art. Rose sets this exploration in the context of one man’s compelling midlife search for direction as he observes Abramović’s fleeting art, which the novel intriguingly brings back to life. This is a brilliant find for any reader who enjoys grappling with the larger questions of life and literature, and it is an excellent choice for book clubs seeking thought-provoking discussion.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Arky Levin, a 50-year-old film score composer, has reached a strange moment in his life. Recently separated from his wife under disconcerting circumstances and estranged from his only child, Arky finds himself alone in a new apartment in New York and purposefully cut off from friends. This should provide the silence he craves to write his latest film score, but instead he just feels lost.

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