Synopses & Reviews
'Lily and Mabel find themselves on their own, living in their grandmother\'s antique shop in rural Nebraska. They\'re bound together by their loyalty to each other and by a haunting urgency to reconcile their own, disparate versions of the past so that they might build their futures together. In what she intends to be a rebellious, even wild, choice, Lily steals a car with her boyfriend and heads southwest--imitating the flight of the infamous Stark brothers but without the violent crime spree--toward an Arizona vineyard to confront her mother. But Mabel stays behind, seeking to commune somehow with her father\'s ghost and finding solace from a young man whose family is grieving the death of a sister.
Renowned author Timothey Schaffert\'s celebrated debut novel, reissued here in an entirely new paperback edition, chronicles two sisters on the cusp of womanhood as they struggle to understand their father\'s suicide as well as their mother\'s abandonment of them many years earlier. On graduating from high school, the sisters are once again set adrift, this time by their grandmother, who leaves them for Florida. In order to survive, and perhaps ven thrive, on their path to adulthood, they must learn to reconcile their pasts and discover how to depend upon themselves as well as upon each other.'
Review
'\"àboondocks-Gothicàquietly tragicàThe sisters lose their childhood innocence only to acquire an adult versionà As long as the sisters have each other, nothing else matters.\" & The Washington Post'
Review
'\"àblithe, quirkyàspirited, offbeatà Like his characters, Mr. Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and seems to have cultivated a sense of exquisite boredom mixed with wry humor à he displays an outlook well suited to the paradoxical.\" & Janet Maslin, The New York Times'
Review
'\"Timothy Schaffert is a delightful and startling new voice à [The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters] avoids even a hint of pathos while sometimes being sad, often funny, and extraordinarily seductive. This book is quite an achievement.\" & Robb Forman Dew (winner of the National Book Award)'
Review
blithe, quirky
spirited, offbeat
Like his characters, Mr. Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and seems to have cultivated a sense of exquisite boredom mixed with wry humor
he displays an outlook well suited to the paradoxical.” Janet Maslin, The New York Times
boondocks-Gothic
quietly tragic
The sisters lose their childhood innocence only to acquire an adult version
As long as the sisters have each other, nothing else matters.” The Washington Post
One has to admire an author who sets his first novel in rural Nebraska. That landscape was put on the literary map a century ago by Willa Cather
in The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters by Timothy Schaffert, a narrative both sweet and audacious unfolds, encroaching Cathers pinnacle just a bit.
I wanted to know what becomes of these brave and funny sisters. The descriptive gifts of the author are great.” United Press International
Timothy Schaffert is a delightful and startling new voice
[The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters] avoids even a hint of pathos while sometimes being sad, often funny, and extraordinarily seductive. This book is quite an achievement.” Robb Forman Dew
Perceptive and intelligent.” The Midwest Book Review
An inventive story and endearing characters.” Booklist
A worthy first novel
The characters are flawed but believable, vulnerable but resilient.” The Post and Courier
Timothy Schaffert writes of connections made, connections broken, connections longed for. His writing is gritty and down to earth, and yet, he writes poetic images of powerful and painful beauty that transcend any earth-bound tether. Two sisters, powerfully joined even when far apart, move through seemingly unfathomable events, trying to make sense of their world, as it was, is, and will be. Schaffert is an estimable guide through their haunted existence.” Glenn Raucher, Literary Arts Coordinator, The Writers Voice New York
Synopsis
In Schafferts seriocomic debut, two sisters on the cusp of womanhood struggle to understand their fathers suicide as well as their mothers abandonment of them many years earlier.
Synopsis
Renowned author Timothy Schafferts celebrated debut novel, reissued here in an entirely new paperback edition, chronicles two sisters on the cusp of womanhood as they struggle to understand their fathers suicide as well their mothers abandonment of them many years earlier. On graduating from high school, the sisters are once again set adrift, this time by their grandmother who leaves them for Florida. In order to survive, and perhaps even thrive, on their path to adulthood, they must learn to reconcile their pasts and discover how to depend upon themselves as well as on each other.
In a story that rises out of the spare Nebraska landscape, Schaffert delivers a redemptive tale about two young women searching for wholeness and love.
About the Author
'Timothy Schaffert is the author of three novels, including Devils in the Sugar Shop and The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God. Schaffert grew up on a farm in Nebraska and currently lives in Omaha. His short fiction has been published in several literary journals, and he has won numerous awards, including the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award and the Nebraska Book Award.'