Editorial Content for In the Time of Our History
Teaser
Inspired by her own family’s experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Susanne Pari explores the entangled lives within an Iranian American family grappling with generational culture clashes, the roles imposed on women, and a tragic accident that forces them to reconcile their guilt or forfeit their already tenuous bonds.
Promo
Inspired by her own family’s experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Susanne Pari explores the entangled lives within an Iranian American family grappling with generational culture clashes, the roles imposed on women, and a tragic accident that forces them to reconcile their guilt or forfeit their already tenuous bonds.
About the Book
Inspired by her own family’s experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Susanne Pari explores the entangled lives within an Iranian American family grappling with generational culture clashes, the roles imposed on women, and a tragic accident that forces them to reconcile their guilt or forfeit their already tenuous bonds. Set between San Francisco and New Jersey in the late 1990s, IN THE TIME OF OUR HISTORY is a story about the universal longing to create a home in this world --- and what happens when we let go of how we’ve always been told it should look.
Twelve months after her younger sister Anahita’s death, Mitra Jahani reluctantly returns to her parents’ home in suburban New Jersey to observe the Iranian custom of “The One Year.” Ana is always in Mitra’s heart, though they chose very different paths. While Ana, sweet and dutiful, bowed to their domineering father’s demands and married, Mitra rebelled and was banished.
Caught in the middle is their mother, Shireen, torn between her fierce love for her surviving daughter and her loyalty to her husband. Yet his callousness even amid shattering loss has compelled her to rethink her own decades of submission. And when Mitra is suddenly forced to confront hard truths about her sister’s life, and the secrets each of them hid to protect others, mother and daughter reach a new understanding --- and forge an unexpected path forward.
Alive with the tensions, sacrifices and joys that thrum within the heart of every family, IN THE TIME OF OUR HISTORY is also laced with the richness of ancient and modern Persian culture and politics, in a tale that is both timeless and profoundly relevant.
Editorial Content for The Mitford Affair
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From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history's most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her sisters?
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From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history's most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her sisters?
About the Book
From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history's most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her sisters?
Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters --- each more beautiful, brilliant and eccentric than the next --- dominate the English scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's mistress.
As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters' constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.
Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to WWII and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, THE MITFORD AFFAIR follows Nancy's valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, choosing between loyalty to her country and allegiance to her family, and forcing her to learn exactly how personal is the political.
Editorial Content for The New Life
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Teaser
In the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, this brilliant and captivating debut novel is about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late-19th-century London.
Promo
In the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, this brilliant and captivating debut novel is about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late-19th-century London.
About the Book
A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late-19th-century London.
In this powerful, visceral novel about love, sex and the struggle for a better world, two men collaborate on a book in defense of homosexuality, then a crime --- risking their old lives in the process.
In the summer of 1894, John Addington and Henry Ellis begin writing a book arguing that what they call “inversion,” or homosexuality, is a natural, harmless variation of human sexuality. Though they have never met, John and Henry both live in London with their wives, Catherine and Edith, and in each marriage there is a third party: John has a lover, a working class man named Frank, and Edith spends almost as much time with her friend, Angelica, as she does with Henry. John and Catherine have three grown daughters and a long, settled marriage, over the course of which Catherine has tried to accept her husband’s sexuality and her own role in life. Henry and Edith’s marriage is intended to be a revolution in itself, an intellectual partnership that dismantles the traditional understanding of what matrimony means.
Shortly before the book is to be published, Oscar Wilde is arrested. John and Henry must decide whether to go on, risking social ostracism and imprisonment, or to give up the project for their own safety and the safety of the people they love. Is this the right moment to advance their cause? Is publishing bravery or foolishness? And what price is too high to pay for a new way of living?
A richly detailed, insightful and dramatic debut novel, THE NEW LIFE is an unforgettable portrait of two men, a city and a generation discovering the nature and limits of personal freedom as the 20th century comes into view.
Editorial Content for The Night Travelers
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Teaser
Four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of THE GERMAN GIRL.
Promo
Four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of THE GERMAN GIRL.
About the Book
Four generations of women experience love, loss, war and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and, finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of the “timely must-read” (People) THE GERMAN GIRL.
Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. As the Nazis rise to power, Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her against Hitler’s deadly ideology of Aryan purity. But as she grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Lilith hidden, so Ally sets in motion a dangerous and desperate plan to send her daughter across the ocean to safety.
Havana, 1958: Now an adult, Lilith has few memories of her mother or her childhood in Germany. Besides, she’s too excited for her future with her beloved Martin, a Cuban pilot with strong ties to the Batista government. But as the flames of revolution ignite, Lilith and her newborn daughter, Nadine, find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.
Berlin, 1988: As a scientist in Berlin, Nadine is dedicated to ensuring the dignity of the remains of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Yet she has spent her entire lifetime avoiding the truth about her own family’s history. It takes her daughter, Luna, to encourage Nadine to uncover the truth about the choices her mother and grandmother made to ensure the survival of their children. And it will fall to Luna to come to terms with a shocking betrayal that changes everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.
Separated by time but united by sacrifice, four women embark on journeys of self-discovery and find themselves to be living testaments to the power of motherly love.
Editorial Content for Reef Road
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Teaser
When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women --- a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s best friend and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children --- collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
Promo
When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women --- a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s best friend and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children --- collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
About the Book
When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women --- a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s best friend and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children --- collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.
“REEF ROAD is magnificent. It feels utterly real, a novel of deeply personal context. It swerves between truth and lies, the lies that lead to an even deeper --- and more devastating --- truth. Though pure fiction, it reads as compellingly as a mixture of memoir and exposé. It has left me shaken to the core. Deborah Goodrich Royce writes with brilliant understanding of the mystery and occasional grace of trauma.” —Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author
A young woman’s life seems perfect until her family goes missing. A writer lives alone with her dog and collects arcane murder statistics. What each of them stands to lose as they sneak around the do-not-enter tape blocking Reef Road beach is exposed by the steady tightening of the cincture encircling them.
In a nod to the true crime that inspired it, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s REEF ROAD probes unhealed generational scars in a wrenching and original work of fiction. It is both stunning and sexy, and like a bystander surprised by a curtain left open, you won’t be able to look away.
January 28, 2023
In my book group, we keep up with one another via a Facebook group. If we see something interesting to read during the month, or something about an author we have read, we post it there. Close to the time of our meeting, which we are trying to keep to the third Wednesday of the month, we talk about where we are gathering. I am happy to host as I am the one without young children. There usually is some commentary about the book at this point. One member said this month, “I have strong feelings about this book (let’s be real, I often have strong feelings about our picks),” which made me smile.
Fiona Davis Event Signup
Editorial Content for Age of Vice
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Teaser
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, AGE OF VICE is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance and the consequences of corruption.
Promo
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, AGE OF VICE is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance and the consequences of corruption.
About the Book
This is the age of vice, where money, pleasure and power are everything, and the family ties that bind can also kill.
New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb, and in the blink of an eye five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all --- just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, AGE OF VICE is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family --- loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined. Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence and revenge, will these characters’ connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction?
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, AGE OF VICE is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance and the consequences of corruption. It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best.