S.J. Parris
S.J. Parris writes about her inspiration for Heresy, which masterfully blends true events with fiction into a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
Adam Haslett
A conversation with Adam Haslett, author of Union Atlantic, a deeply affecting portrait of the modern gilded age, the first decade of the twenty-first century.
A Family Daughter: Summary and book reviews of A Family Daughter by Maile Meloy, plus links to an excerpt from A Family Daughter and a biography of Maile Meloy.
A Family Daughter
by
Maile Meloy
Hardcover: Feb 2006,
336 pages.
Paperback: Feb 2007,
336 pages.
From the award-winning author of Half in Love and
Liars and Saints, a riveting story of love, sex, secrets, guilt, and
forgiveness.
Maile Meloy's debut novel, Liars and Saints, captured the hearts of
readers and critics alike. Now Meloy returns with a novel even more dazzling
and unexpected than her first. Brilliantly entertaining, A Family
Daughter might also be the most insightful novel about families and love
that you will read this year.
It's 1979, and seven-year-old Abby, the youngest member of the close-knit
Santerre family, is trapped indoors with the chicken pox during a heat wave.
The events set in motion that summer will span decades and continents,
change the Santerres forever, and surprise and amaze anyone who loved
Meloy's Liars and Saints.
A rich, full novel about passion and desire, fear and betrayal, A Family
Daughter illuminates both the joys and complications of contemporary
life, and the relationship between truth and fiction. For everyone who has
yet to meet the Santerres, an unmatched pleasure awaits.
Book Reviews
BookBrowse A Family Daughter isn't so much a sequel to Meloy's debut novel, Liars and Saints, as it is a parallel story. In Liars and Saints Meloy told the story of four generations of the Santerre family from World War II to the present. In A Family Daughter we meet the same family but from a different perspective .... Meloy juxtaposes the 'fictional' Liars and Saints with the 'real' A Family Daughter to tell a story that stands alone in either book but, when combined together packs "a seismic wallop". Full Review (members only, 605 words).
Kirkus
Each novel stands alone; together they pack a seismic wallop.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Meloy shifts point of view fluently, and though her characters weather all sorts of melodrama, the novel itself feels light - poignant and affecting, meaningful yet somehow weightless.
Library Journal - Reba Leiding
This new work is enjoyable on its own, but those who have read Meloy's earlier effort can puzzle whether this book is a sequel or a revision. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.
Booklist - Emily Cook
Riveting and engrossing, Meloy's tale of a family struggling with guilt and forgiveness spans decades and crosses continents, proving her status as one of the best literary observers of contemporary American life.
The Boston Globe
[Meloy] may be the first great American realist of the twenty-first century....The Santerres aren't real but they feel like they are, and the reader will not soon forget them.
Los Angeles Times
Meloy's Santerres may just be the most fascinating, engrossing American family since the Louds. BookBrowse note: In 1973 PBS made a 12-part documentary about a Californian family - The Louds. The documentary is considered by many to be the originator of reality TV and opened the door for future shows portraying dysfunctional families.
The New York Times Book Review
Upends popular notions of American fiction...A spectacular first novel.
The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during wartime, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.
Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
What drives a man to stay in a marriage, in a job? What forces him away? Is love or conscience enough to overcome the darker, stronger urges of the natural world? The Unnamed is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.
Lisa See has written a great book! This story is satisfying on many levels, some scenes horrifying, but seemingly truthful, and her handling of the ...
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I was sorry to see that there were so few reviews. I started reading COAL and could not stop. The only thing I am going to say is that I wish ...
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The tragedy, the sorrow, the loss, is almost too much for me to recommend this; on the other hand Mistry made me believe I knew these characters. I ...
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UK Orange Award longlist announced(Mar 17 2010) Hilary Mantel, Sarah Waters and Barbara Kingsolver have made the longlist for the 2010 Orange Prize, a 20-strong list described by chair Daisy Goodwin as...
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National Book Critics Circle Awards announced(Mar 11 2010) Each March, the NBCC present awards for the finest books and reviews published in English (in the USA) the previous year in six categories: Fiction,...
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A Family Daughter
(members only, 605 words).
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