Although the premise of LOST CAUSES seems wrought with anguish, both main characters strive to find meaning in their dissolving lives. Kathe Mazur and Stephen Hoye perform splendid counterpoints to each other, using subtle tones of despair tempered by hints of bewildered irony and cautious emotion. In Russia, world chess champion Bezetov becomes embroiled in post-Cold War dissident politics, risking his life as he pits himself against Vladimir Putin and his policies. Decades later, across the world, Irina Ellison confronts Huntington's disease and the limitations ahead, which she knows all too well since her father died of the disease. She seeks out Bezetov in Russia to respond to her father's unanswered question about persevering in the face of a lost cause—a question that is now intensely personal to Irina. Both characters' fates collide in a triumph of courage, wisdom, and compassion. A.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
“I was collecting names even before I decided to write the book. One treasure trove was a plaque I came across at an old resort in Rhode Island that listed the winners of summer lawn bowling tournaments from the 1950s until now.” That’s Maggie Shipstead on how she came up with the wonderfully preppy characters that pop up in her madcap comedy of manners, Seating Arrangements, the newest B&N Recommends selection. In an exclusive interview, Maggie talks to Tess Taylor about translating WASPs, literary influences from Cheever and Updike to Perotta and Eugenides. And then there are the exploding whales…
Jennifer duBois, author of A Partial History of Lost Causes, has written a new novel, and it’s a doozy. Cartwheel, which tells a fictionalized version of the Amanda Knox story, is a literary page-turner and a deeply imagined character study. It centers around Lily, a smart but naive protagonist who’s studying abroad in Buenos Aires […]