I loved the idea that our protagonist, Tig, decides to interview the man who killed her grandfather in order to learn more about him, so she can paint his picture evocatively. The more she learns about the woman who killed him, the more the reader comes to care about both of them.
In a powerful and poignant novel, an artist unravels her mysterious family history and its generations of women who depended on each other to survive.
Tig Costello has arrived in Darren, Kentucky, commissioned to paint a portrait honoring her grandfather Benjamin. His contributions to the rural Appalachian town and his unimpeachable war service have made him a local hero. But to Tig, he's a relative stranger. To find out more about him, Tig wants to talk to the person who knew her grandfather best: Eloise Price, the woman who murdered him fifty years ago.
This book has ideas I hadn't thought about -- concerning what makes a good story. Matt Bird is an original thinker and analyst. He has asked his students and friends what they like to read and why. Then he compiled what he learned into this book. I find it useful when plotting a new story that I want to write myself.
You've just boarded a plane. You've loaded your phone with your favorite podcasts, but before you can pop in your earbuds, disaster strikes: The guy in the next seat starts telling you all about something crazy that happened to him--in great detail. This is the unwelcome storyteller, trying to convince a reluctant audience to care about his story.
We all hate that guy, right? But when you tell a story (any kind of story: a novel, a memoir, a screenplay, a stage play, a comic, or even a cover letter), you become the unwelcome storyteller.
This is a science fiction story with an idea I've never seen before. Readers are able to follow three versions of a character, all 20 years apart. Since they live in different valleys, they aren't supposed to meet each other. This story asks the question -- what happens if a character gets a second chance because of a choice her other valley self makes.
'Astonishingly brilliant. My book of the year.' Liz Nugent, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond
For fans of Emily St John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro, an exhilarating novel about an isolated town neighboured by its own past and future, and a young girl who faces an impossible choice...
Would you sacrifice the future for love?
Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on an elite council that decides who may cross her town's heavily guarded borders. To the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an…
In this whimsical and fast-paced adventure, Wickstrom (Huff…Puff…Grind! The Three Little Pigs Get Smart) introduces twelve-year-old Gwendolyn, who has a relatively normal life, until the night her house burns down–and, it turns out, is also a dream-shifter, someone who turns into the creature they’re dreaming about. When the smoke alarm goes off because of the fire, Gwendolyn is jolted awake–and gets stuck in the form of an elk. With an animal body, Gwendolyn must work with her family, friends old and new, and learn a bit of magic along as she strives to keep her life on its path–she’s trying to win a scholarship to a journalism camp–and faces new problems, like the onset of elk hunting season. -- BookLife Prize
