Editorial content for The Murderer's Daughters
About the Book
Lulu and Merry's childhood was never ideal, but on the day before Lulu's 10th birthday, their father drives them into a nightmare. He's always hungered for the love of the girls' self-obsessed mother; after she throws him out, their troubles turn deadly.
Lulu had been warned never to let her father in, but when he shows up drunk, he's impossible to ignore. He bullies his way past Lulu, who then listens in horror as her parents struggle. She runs for help, but discovers upon her return that he's murdered her mother, stabbed her five-year-old sister, and tried, unsuccessfully, to kill himself.
Lulu and Merry are effectively orphaned by their mother's death and father's imprisonment, but the girls' relatives refuse to care for them and abandon them to a terrifying group home. Even as they plot to be taken in by a well-to-do family, they come to learn they'll never really belong anywhere or to anyone --- that all they have to hold onto is each other.
For 30 years, the sisters try to make sense of what happened. Their imprisoned father is a specter in both their lives, shadowing every choice they make. One spends her life pretending he's dead, while the other feels compelled, by fear, by duty, to keep him close. Both dread the day his attempts to win parole may meet success.
A beautifully written, compulsively readable debut, THE MURDERER'S DAUGHTER is a testament to the power of family and the ties that bind us together and tear us apart.
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February 1, 2011, 563 voters
February 2011
My office in New York has a window that gets marvelous sunlight from about noon until 2:00 during the months of January and February. It gets warm and feels like I am on the beach. At least that happens the days that the sun actually shines, which were few and far between since the beginning of the year. I get energized by this bright light and thus soooo welcome it. In its absence I have been reading my way through the winter to give me an extra boost.
If you're not afraid of controversial topics at your book club, then check out Naseem Rakha's THE CRYNG TREE. It is the story of a family torn apart by the brutal murder of their teenage son, and the mother's journey to forgive the man who ki
In support of Reading Group Guide.com’s Share Your 2010 Picks campaign, I thought I would share recent picks of our book group along with the next upcoming six titles!
