Bonnie

by Christina Schwarz, Candace Thaxton (Read by)

Overview

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drowning Ruth vividly evokes the perennially fascinating true crime love affair of Bonnie and Clyde in this suspenseful, gorgeously detailed fictional portrait of Bonnie Parker, one of America’s most enigmatic women.

Born in a small town in the desolate reaches of western Texas and shaped by her girlhood in an industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Dallas, Bonnie Parker was a natural performer and a star student. She dreamed of being a movie star or a singer or a poet. But her dramatic nature, contorted by her limited opportunities and her overwhelming love for Clyde Barrow, pushed her into a course from which there was no escape but death.

Infusing the psychological acuity of literary fiction with the relentless pacing of a thriller, Bonnie follows Bonnie from her bright, promising youth to her final month of shoot-outs, kidnappings, and desperate car chases through America’s hinterland in the grip of the Great Depression, as the noose of the law tightened around her. Enriched by Christina Schwarz’s extensive research in the footsteps of Bonnie and Clyde and written with her powerful sense of place and time, Bonnie is a plaintive and page-turning account of a woman destroyed by a lethal combination of longing and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797106595
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Christina Schwarz is the author of five novels, including The Edge of the Earth and the Oprah Book Club selection Drowning Ruth. Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, she lives in southern California.

Candace Thaxton is an actress and audiobook narrator. She has starred in several films and television shows, including Ghost Town and Law & Order.

Editorial Reviews

05/18/2020

Schwarz (The Edge of the Earth) entices with this introspective view of notorious bank robber Bonnie Parker. In 1926, Bonnie marries her high school sweetheart, Roy, at 15 and they drop out of school. After Roy disappears for long stretches, Bonnie begins waitressing at Marco’s Café in Dallas to make ends meet, writing poetry on the side and leaving out food for people in need. After the Great Depression hits and Marco’s closes, Bonnie works odd jobs and her dreams of becoming a poet dim (“she’d learned to accept the fading of those bright dreams as the price of adulthood”). In 1930, Bonnie leaves Roy and stays at a friend’s house. A young man named Clyde Barrow shows up there, and Bonnie becomes enamored with him. Clyde courts Bonnie for a few weeks before being slapped with a two-year sentence for stealing a safe. Bonnie visits him in prison, and after he’s freed and starts robbing banks, she evolves from accomplice to partner in crime. She and Clyde continue their spree across the southeast, stealing cars, robbing banks, and exchanging gunfire with police, activities that lead to their being gunned down in a police ambush in 1934. The author expertly magnifies the characters’ desperation and intertwines the excitement of eluding the law with their magnetic sexual attraction. Schwarz’s rich narrative brings fresh life into the notorious tale of two American outlaws. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Absorbing...poignant, often heartbreaking...Schwarz is a vivid storyteller." –The New York Times Book Review

“Bodies fall, blood flies, Bonnie and Clyde sleep in stolen cars and can’t eat in restaurants but so long as they are in the headlines all is well. In Bonnie, Schwarz has created a mesmerizing portrait of a young woman who longs to live a larger life and who almost always acts in her own worst interests. A stunning novel.” —Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury

“Bonnie Parker is better known for how she died than how she lived, but Christina Schwarz remedies that with her magnificent new novel. In exploring Bonnie’s complex inner-life and fascinating story, Schwarz makes this iconic figure relevant to the world we inhabit today. An evocative and absorbing read.” —Greer Kessel Hendricks, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Wife Between Us

"Expertly magnifies the characters’ desperation and intertwines the excitement of eluding the law with their magnetic sexual attraction. Schwarz’s rich narrative brings fresh life into the notorious tale of two American outlaws." —Publishers Weekly

"The novel’s opening offers even those who remember the movie a fresh, touching view of Bonnie before Clyde.” —Kirkus Reveiw

From the Publisher

"The Edge of the Earth invites us into the lives of a young married couple in the late nineteenth century drawn to a lighthouse above the forbidding cliffs of Point Lucia, California – an isolated spot filled with marine life that few have seen before and, perhaps, a mermaid. But there are human secrets too - and as you learn what they are, you will almost hear the crashing waves. Inhale deeply – you are there, caught in the roiling energy of passion, regret, discovery – and, always, the sea. A gripping story."

New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker - Kate Alcott

"Christina Schwarz's gift of detail makes the characters leap off the page and her expert handling of suspense allows for a cliffhanger ending that you won't see coming. I loved this book!"

New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter - Sarah Jio

Told in brilliant detail, this is a memorable tale of an uncommon woman who embarks on the road less traveled…a haunting story."

Bookpage

A wonderful story and a deep meditation on the meaning of work and knowledge. It’s also a compelling imagining of its time and place, making it a good choice for lovers of historical fiction."

Booklist

Praise for The Edge of the Earth and Christina Schwarz

"Skillful storytelling."

New York Times

2020-04-13
Schwarz’s fictionalized biography of Bonnie Parker, who, with Clyde Barrow, gained notoriety as part of a wave of Depression-era outlaws, will divide readers along generational lines.

For those too young to remember the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde, this play-by-play account of the couple’s far-from-successful criminal career offers a grim introduction to a gang of characters hopelessly downtrodden, psychopathic, or sometimes both. Readers who came of age around the time of the iconic film—a mix of comedy, graphic violence, and visual romanticism that made outlaws into larger-than-life romantic figures—will see Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway on every page (as when Bonnie notices Clyde’s dimple for the first time) and will wonder at the necessity of this ploddingly detailed, all-too-earthbound retelling. But the novel’s opening offers even those who remember the movie a fresh, touching view of Bonnie before Clyde—the bright, sensitive child more plucky than headstrong evolving into a young woman still innocent but with “big dreams, no patience.” Briefly married at 16, Bonnie is waitressing in Dallas, Texas, when she meets Clyde, whose courtship is charming and conventional in its first weeks until he’s arrested while sleeping on her (always devoted) mother’s couch. Sent to jail in March 1930, Clyde convinces Bonnie to help him escape. Recaptured, he’s sent to a harsher prison. When he’s released two years later, they hit the road, living off Clyde’s robberies, which often go wrong and sometimes end in someone’s death. They’re joined in their dreary capers by a few hardened criminals but mostly by boys like W.D., riding along for the excitement until implicated too deeply to easily leave. By 1934, Bonnie is destitute, in constant pain from a car accident, drinking and popping pills. Still committed to deluded loser Clyde, she continues writing romantic poetry although her own romantic illusions evaporated long ago.

So many cars and guns, so many screw-ups, so many dead bodies—they all blur together after a while.

Kirkus Reviews