A House Among the Trees: A Novel

by Julia Glass Narrated by Mary Stuart Masterson

Overview

In Julia Glass's fifth book since her acclaimed novel Three Junes won the National Book Award, she gives us the story of an unusual bond between a world-famous writer and his assistant-a richly plotted novel of friendship and love, artistic ambition, the perils of celebrity, and the power of an unexpected legacy.

When the revered children's book author Mort Lear dies accidentally at his Connecticut home, he leaves his property and all its contents to his trusted assistant, Tomasina Daulair, who is moved by his generosity but dismayed by the complicated and defiant directives in his will. Tommy knew Morty for more than four decades, since meeting him in a Manhattan playground when she was twelve and he was working on sketches for the book that would make him a star. By the end of his increasingly reclusive life, she found herself living in his house as confidante and helpmeet, witness not just to his daily routines but to the emotional fallout of his strange boyhood and his volatile relationship with a lover who died of AIDS. Now Tommy must try to honor Morty's last wishes while grappling with their effects on several people, including Dani Daulair, her estranged brother; Meredith Galarza, the lonely, outraged museum curator to whom Lear once promised his artistic estate; and Nicholas Greene, the beguiling British actor cast to play Mort Lear in a movie.

When the actor arrives for the visit he had previously arranged with the man he is to portray, he and Tommy are compelled to look more closely at Morty's past and the consequences of the choices they now face, both separately and together. Morty, as it turns out, made a confession to Greene that undermines much of what Tommy believed she knew about her boss-and about herself. As she contemplates a future without him, her unlikely alliance with Greene-and the loyalty they share toward the man whose legacy they hold in their hands-will lead to surprising upheavals in their wider relationships, their careers, and even their search for love.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Audio

11/27/2017
A terrible attempt at a British accent for a minor character is actor Masterson’s only misstep in this otherwise winning performance. Beloved children’s literature icon Mort Lear has just died unexpectedly, leaving his longtime assistant Tomasina “Tommy” Daulair to pick up the pieces of his life, including a recently altered will and an in-progress biopic starring the British phenom Nicholas Greene. Reader Masterson excels when playing Mort in flashbacks; her gravelly and playful voice feels perfect for capturing Mort’s complicated impulsivity. She also skillfully portrays the self-doubt and crushed hopes of Meredith, the curator of a new museum devoted to children’s literature who received Mort’s verbal promises of his literary inheritance but was ultimately left in the cold. Where the performance falls short is in Masterson’s British accent for actor Nick Greene, which is awkward and inconsistent to the point of distraction. Listeners who are able to get past it will enjoy the layers of drama in this well-told story. A Pantheon hardcover. (June)

Publishers Weekly

04/10/2017
When famed children’s author Mort Lear falls to his death in a stubborn attempt to trim a wayward tree limb, he leaves behind an invaluable legacy of work and an even greater wealth of secrets. Glass (Three Junes) employs her trademark multilayered character studies and intricately woven time-jumping narrative to slowly unspool each thread connecting Mort’s past to the lives of those he left behind. Tomasina “Tommy” Daulair, his long-term live-in assistant and the older sister of the boy Mort’s most beloved character was modeled after, inherits everything—including the burden of explaining the last-minute change in Mort’s will to museum director Meredith Galarza, whose love for Mort’s work is only exceeded by her obsession with the man himself. Tommy’s attempts to navigate her grief and the complexities of her new duties are interrupted by an unwelcome visit from Oscar-winning actor Nicholas Greene, eager to research his next role: a biopic covering the most dramatic periods of Mort’s life. Nick, to Tommy’s dismay, arrives with fresh information about Mort’s past that shows how little she, or any of his loved ones, truly knew him. Unfortunately, Glass demonstrates more skill in building anticipation than in following through with satisfying revelations. Her use of a fragmented, narrative-hopping timeline overwhelms the characters themselves, leaving them as obscure as Mort’s secrets. (June)

From the Publisher

Thoughtful, warm-hearted. . . . It’s a pleasure to be in the hands of a consummate storyteller.” —The Boston Globe

“Spell-binding. . . . Elegant and character-driven.” —Chicago Tribune

“Show[s] off Glass’s signature talent for rendering characters as full as any you’d actually meet.” —New York
 
“Glass [is] an astute observer of relationships and master of dialogue.” —The Seattle Times

“A House Among the Trees shows [Glass] at her tender, compassionate, thoughtful, best, thinking about art, about life, and the way they intertwine so beautifully to make us, finally, fully human.” —The New Orleans Advocate

“Gripping and evocative. Glass is a formidable storyteller.” —The Washington Book Review

“Enthralling. . . . Glass is a master at withholding information until just the right moment.” —The National Book Review

“Glass is a pro.” —The Washington Post

“A fascinating look at a world in which a creative artist becomes a hot property to be both honored and exploited. . . . A compelling story with fully realized characters.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Radiant. . . . Warmhearted. . . . Grippingly readable. . . . [Glass’s] conclusion finds room for compromise and mutual fulfillment among her full-bodied, compassionately rendered characters.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Excellent. . . . [Glass] excels at bringing her many characters to life and at imagining vivid scenes from the rarified world of art and entertainment.” —Library Journal

Library Journal

06/15/2017
Tomasina (Tommy) Daulair gets a terrible shock when children's author Mort Lear, famous for the beloved classic Colorquake, dies unexpectedly. Tommy is Mort's longtime assistant, though she is actually more like a wife to the gay author—except for the sex, as Tommy's brother Dani snidely points out. Tommy shares Mort's home, but after his death, she is shocked to learn that Mort has left the house and his entire estate to her; she will also be his literary executor. Meanwhile, Meredith, a high-strung museum curator, insists that Mort's artistic holdings were promised to her. There's also a movie about the young Mort in the works, and the charming British actor who is starring in it shows up. The characters in this complex and fascinating novel find themselves coming to terms with secrets and torments from the past as they learn more about Mort's life. VERDICT Since her first novel, Three Junes, Glass has explored family dynamics of all kinds with a warm yet never sentimental sympathy. She excels at bringing her many characters to life and at imagining vivid scenes from the rarified world of art and entertainment in this excellent new book.—Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

JULY 2017 - AudioFile

Julia Glass’s tender, uncompromising novel is centered on the life and death of Mort Lear, a gay illustrator of children’s books. Narrator Mary Stuart Masterson offers credible portraits of the famous man and his most famous character, Ivo; his live-in assistant, Tommy; and Nick, the actor hired to play him in the biopic. When Morty dies suddenly, making Tommy his literary executor and heir, she deals with several embarrassments and difficulties, including notifying a New York museum of Morty’s retraction of a promised bequest and handling a visit from the movie’s Academy Award-winning actor. Masterson allows the characters to fully emerge and gives the stories and the colors in Morty’s books a shiny newness. The combination of Glass’s exceptional prose and Masterson’s understated performance makes this must-listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2017-03-12
The sudden death of a successful children's author leaves the survivors to grapple with his legacy and consider the secrets we all keep in this radiant latest from Glass (And the Dark Sacred Night, 2014, etc.).Yes, that famous gay artist bears a striking resemblance to Maurice Sendak, but Glass has been inspired rather than constrained by her prototype. Mort Lear is an original creation, still very much a presence in the novel as it unfolds following his accidental fall from the roof of his Connecticut home. Morty has unexpectedly named longtime live-in assistant Tomasina Daulair his heir and literary executor; he has also vindictively reneged on his promise to bequeath his archives to a New York museum. In addition to this embarrassment, Tommy must deal with the previously scheduled visit of Nicholas Greene, a newly minted movie star about to play Morty in a film. The deftly structured plot centers around that visit and its disruption by the arrival of Meredith Galarza, the jilted museum's director, and Tommy's resentful brother, Dani, who as a boy was the unwitting model for Morty's drawings of Ivo, protagonist of "the book that launched Lear like a NASA space shot." We also learn that Morty had confided to Nick a startling revelation of childhood trauma even more twisted than the story he publicly told of abuse by an older man. But Glass doesn't perpetuate the stereotype of tortured, exploitative genius; she gently explores the complex ways an artist transmutes and transcends his personal history in his work as well as the decisions people around him must make about how much they are willing to subordinate their lives to the needs of someone more gifted and driven. It's typical of the warmhearted Glass that her conclusion finds room for compromise and mutual fulfillment among her full-bodied, compassionately rendered characters. This is a fitting tribute to the man who brought boldness and emotional depth to children's literature: vivid without being simplistic, as grippingly readable as it is thoughtful.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169064452
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/13/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

One
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "A House Among the Trees"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Julia Glass.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Videos