Synopses & Reviews
The luminous new novel from the author of the phenomenal bestseller
The Secret Life of Bees.
Sue Monk Kidds stunning debut, The Secret Life of Bees, has transformed her into a genuine literary star. Now, in her much-anticipated new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her legion of fans and cement her reputation as one of the most remarkable writers at work today.
Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on tiny Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion. Jessie Sullivans conventional life has been molded to the smallest space possible. So when she is called home to cope with her mothers startling and enigmatic act of violence, Jessie finds herself relieved to be apart from her husband, Hugh. Jessie loves Hugh, but on Egret Island amid the gorgeous marshlands and tidal creeks she becomes drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is mere months from taking his final vows. What transpires will unlock the roots of her mothers tormented past, but most of all, as Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, she will find a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right.
What inspires the yearning for a soul mate? Few writers have explored, as Kidd does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body; one that illuminates a womans self-awakening with the brilliance and power that only a writer of Kidds ability could conjure.
Review
"Bestselling Kidd has a gift for language, but the saccharine aftertaste won't go away." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Kidd's second offering is just as gracefully written as her first and possesses an equally compelling story. It should appeal to the many readers who made her first novel a hit with book clubs." Booklist
Review
"Readers who admired The Secret Life of Bees will likely find pleasure in Kidd's new combination of legend, personal history, spirituality, and humanity in quest of its own significance." Boston Globe
Review
"Those who fell in love with Kidd's first novel will find pleasure here." Portland Oregonian
Synopsis
A dazzling novel of passion and spiritualitythe instant blockbuster bestseller from the author of The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidds phenomenal debut, The Secret Life of Bees, became a runaway bestseller that is still on the New York Times bestseller list more than two years after its paperback publication. Now, in her luminous new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her legion of fans. Telling the story of Jessie Sullivana love story between a woman and a monk, a woman and her husband, and ultimately a woman and her own soulKidd charts a journey of awakening and self-discovery illuminated with a brilliance that only a writer of her ability could conjure.
Book clubs, start your engines. . . . [The Mermaid Chair] is a tapestry strengthened by bonds between women that bridge pain and loss.
USA Today
The pages all but turn themselves. Parade
Soulful in its probing of the human heart. San Francisco Chronicle
Kidd draws connections from the feminine to the divine to the erotic that a lesser writer wouldnt see, and might not have the guts to follow. Time
Its hard to put this book down for things like eating and sleeping. Elle