Staff Pick
The death of her teenage sister sends 13-year-old Nico, along with her parents, into a gigantic tailspin. All three are shocked into immobility and pain, and turn to dangerous diversions. Nico finds herself submitting uncomfortably to the strange requests of her sister's boyfriend. Francine Prose is a writer of epic proportions, and she turns this seemingly depressing story into an exquisite, spare, quiet coming-of-age tale that will stay with you. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
After the sudden death of her beloved older sister, thirteen-year-old Nico finds her life on New England's idyllic Mirror Lake irrevocably altered. Left alone to grope toward understanding, she falls into a seductive, dangerous relationship with her sister's boyfriend. Over one haunted summer, Nico faces that life-changing moment when children realize their parents can no longer help them as she experiences the mystery of loss and recovery. Still, for all the darkness at its heart, Goldengrove is radiant with the lightness of summer and charged by the restless sexual tension of adolescence.
Review
“Francine Proses new novel is a quiet, clear-eyed, sun-dappled eulogy to lost youth, and a youth lost. . . . [Prose is ] a keen chronicler of human emotion.” Elle
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“With a dazzling mix of directness and metaphor, Prose captures the centrifugal and isolating force of grief...Prose exquisitely renders her characters grief and bafflement.” Los Angeles Times
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“...emotionally authentic...a ravishing novel of the mystery of death and lifes assertion.” Booklist (starred review)
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“Prose holds up a mirror to grief and family life we cant look away from, revealing their truths on page after page, in beautifully crafted writing.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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“A beautiful narrative that defines resilience as the sometimes heartbreaking act of simply living” Redbook Magazine
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“Beautifully crafted...perhaps her most emotionally satisfying novel.” Christian Science Monitor
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“A poignant account of growing up amid sorrow...a tender and moving story of adolescent love.” Hartford Courant
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“An exploration of the fragility of adolescent identity and the perilous undertow of grief” O magazine
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“Arguably, “Goldengrove” is her best book yet.” Seattle Times
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“A page-turner, thanks to its wholly identifiable, and perfectly flawed, young heroine. A-” Entertainment Weekly
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“Prose creates characters with real flaws that make the reader both love and hate them. It is easy to put oneself in the position of any of the players...” Deseret Morning News
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“Prose locates the life force that gives her narrator the quirky, irreverent but undeniable sound of a survivor. . . . Prose is tremendously skilled.” Chicago Tribune
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“Ms. Prose is perceptive. . . . Her modest-sounding book turns out to be beautifully wrought.... and yields an unexpectedly rich, tart, eye-opening sense of Nicos world.” New York Times
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“Deeply touching and absorbing...” Publishers Weekly
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“Proses skillful rendering of the human ability to accept hard truths and move on is a poignant lesson for us all.” Miami Herald
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“Insightful, lyrical... “Goldengrove” is beautifully and simply written...a moving portrait of the search for identity through a landscape of pain and loss.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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“With perfect pitch and no trace of sentimentality, Prose . . . lands on the precise emotional key for this novel . . . allowing humor and compassion to seep through the cracks of an otherwise dark tale.” San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Finished book mailing to professors who have adopted Reading Like a Writer
Send ms to NCTE committee
Pitch author for speaking slot at PLA
--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Goldengrove is an emotionally powerful novel about adolescent love and loss from Francine Prose, the New York Times bestselling author of Reading Like a Writer and A Changed Man. Focusing on a young girl facing the consequences of sudden loss after the death of her sister, this masterful coming-of-age work is radiant with the possibility of summer and charged by the restless sexual tension of teenage life.
About the Author
Francine Prose is the author of twenty works of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director's Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her most recent book is Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932. She lives in New York City.