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Kate Christensen Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Kate Christensen
Photo © Ronnie Farley

Kate Christensen

How to pronounce Kate Christensen: Chris-ten-sen

Kate Christensen Biography

Kate Christensen is the author of eight novels, most recently Welcome Home, Stranger. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico.

Kate Christensen's website

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Interview

In two separate interviews, Kate Christensen considers the surprising nature of her characters in The Astral, and she reveals the inspiration behind her sexy tragicomedy, Trouble.

In two separate interviews, Kate Christensen considers the surprising nature of her characters in The Astral, and she reveals the inspiration behind her sexy tragicomedy, Trouble.

Kate Christensen on The Astral

You write The Astral from the perspective of a 57-year-old male narrator, Harry Quirk. What was it like writing from a different gender?
The Astral is the third novel I've written from a male point of view, so apparently I must enjoy it! Writing from a male perspective is very comfortable for me. Each of my three male narrators is different from the others. Unlike the other two, Harry has raised children, has had a long marriage, and is old enough to feel washed up in his career. Therefore he has few illusions and a realistic sense of who and what he is, which makes him a trustworthy guide to his own story.
The story became more poignant and urgent because I wrote it from Harry's perspective than it would have been if I'd chosen his wife, Luz, or his friend, Marion. In my experience, women are emotionally tougher than men, on the whole, and better able to weather personal crises. The fact that Harry is a man rather than a woman makes him seem more emotionally vulnerable to me. It raises the stakes on his ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Kate Christensen at BookBrowse
Welcome Home, Stranger jacket The Astral jacket Trouble jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Kate Christensen but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Elizabeth Berg

    Elizabeth Berg

    Elizabeth Berg is the author of many bestselling novels, including Open House (an Oprah's Book Club selection), Talk Before Sleep, and The Year of Pleasures, as well as the short story collection The Day I Ate Whatever I... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Astral

    Try:
    Open House
    by Elizabeth Berg

  • Anne Enright

    Anne Enright

    Anne Enright is author of seven novels, most recently Actress. She has been awarded the Man Booker Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Astral

    Try:
    The Forgotten Waltz
    by Anne Enright

We recommend 10 similar authors


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