Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders: A Novel

by Julianna Baggott Narrated by Jodi Carlisle

Overview

"A mesmerizing tale of star-crossed love and of the dark secrets in a fracturing family . . . This novel is so full of wonders that it leaves you haunted, amazed, and, like every great read, irrevocably changed." -- Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You

The reclusive Harriet Wolf, revered author and family matriarch, has a final confession: a love story. Years after her death, as her family comes together one last time, the mystery of Harriet's life hangs in the balance. Does the truth lie in the rumored final book of the series that made Harriet a world-famous writer, or will her final confession be lost forever?

Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders tells the moving story of the unforgettable Wolf women in four distinct voices: the mysterious Harriet, who, until now, has never revealed the secrets of her past; her fiery, overprotective daughter, Eleanor; and her two grown granddaughters -- Tilton, the fragile yet exuberant younger sister, who's become a housebound hermit, and Ruth, the older sister, who ran away at sixteen and never looked back.

When Eleanor is hospitalized, Ruth decides it's time to do right by a pact she made with Tilton long ago: to return home and save her sister. Meanwhile, Harriet whispers her true life story to the reader. It's a story that spans the entire twentieth century and is filled with mobsters, outcasts, a lonesome lion, and a home for wayward women. It's also a tribute to her lifelong love of the boy she met at the Maryland School for Feeble-minded Children.

Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders, Julianna Baggott's most sweeping and mesmerizing novel yet, offers a profound meditation on motherhood and sisterhood, as well as on the central importance of stories. It is a novel that affords its characters that rare chance we all long for -- the chance to reimagine the stories of our lives while there's still time.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

The author of six books (and perhaps a seventh?), Harriet Wolf had an early life that was characterized by bizarre and varied events. Her story is revealed in a series of alternating monologues that are perfectly suited to audio and expertly delivered by an ensemble of voices. Harriet details her unusual birth, her 13 years at the Maryland Home for Feeble Children, her recognition as a girl genius, and her lifelong love for a fellow inmate. Jodi Carlisle depicts Harriet’s anxious, resentful daughter, Eleanor, while Katie Koster and Christine Lakin offer spot-on portrayals of her granddaughters, agoraphobic/claustrophobic Tilton and prodigal Ruth. But Harriet is the story’s heart. Susan Silo is outstanding as she rasps and whispers her droll asides, skewering characters with choice observations. Part romance, part mystery, this completely engaging and wondrous tale is an audiobook listeners will want to hear again ASAP. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFIle Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

The New York Times Book Review - Dominique Browning

Many things are hidden in Julianna Baggott's intricate, tenderhearted novel about a writer, her children and a legacy of loss. Love letters, folded into origami cranes that never take flight, are tucked under a mattress. A newborn child, mute and sallow, is spirited away from her mother and secreted in an institution. A young man supports himself as a professional hider of things, until he too must go into hiding. A wife is lost, a husband is lost, a mother is lost and so is a father. Indeed, an entire book, Harriet Wolf's seventh novel, has disappeared. And, like so many precious lost things, it may be hiding in plain sight. All this sounds somber. But in groping for what's lost, Baggott's characters also stumble across pleasure, joy—and recognition.

From the Publisher

"Family secrets make for ripe hunting grounds for novelists. In this evocative book, those secrets hide mystery after mystery, like a set of Russian nesting dolls . . . Baggott switches narrative perspective among the Wolf women as they struggle with their individual issues, and you'll grow to care for them all. No spoilers, but we'll say this: Baggott knows how and when to reveal answers for the ultimate emotional punch."—Entertainment Weekly"

Many things are hidden in Julianna Baggott's intricate, tenderhearted novel about a writer, her children, and a legacy of loss . . . The narrative Baggott has built might be described as a post-and-beam structure, a framework of sturdy supports locked into place with no nails, just fine, firm dovetail joints.Within it, the four women who make up Harriet's family alternately tell their stories, giving us a variety of perspectives on her 'gappy grasp of the world" . . . As distinctively twisted as these characters' lives are, they still touch our own in ways that can be unexpectedly playful . . . By the end of Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders, much comes out of hiding. Healing cascades down the generations. Harriet's 'truthful kind of lie' turns out to be a gift to her daughter [Eleanor] . . . Eleanor and her daughters will all find a new ending to their story, and remind Baggott's readers of a gorgeous truth: 'The world is astonishing, mainly because of its persistence.'"
—Dominique Browning, New York Times Book Review
"

[Recent] mania for literary treasures provides the perfect moment for Julianna Baggott's new novel, Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders. In a daring bit of whimsy, Baggott has imagined what it would be like to have written a phenomenally popular series, a collection of novels that everyone has read... the chapters narrated in Tilton's fairy-like voice are the novel's most interesting and creative. Baggott conveys her fragmentary understanding of what's happening as she responds to the literal meaning of everything anyone says to her. This is easy to get wrong; the risk of mocking a young woman with special needs is high here, but Baggott captures Tilton's oddness and charm with real affection. Hearing her internal voice, we can tell that she enjoys a rich imagination, seeded long ago by her famous grandmother... As a novel about learning to love and forgive, Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders offers some sweet moments of reconciliation."—Ron Charles, Washington Post
"

Some novels are a lot bigger inside than out. Case in point: Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders . . . [which] signals a quantum leap . . . It took Baggott eighteen years to write, and that's believable. This sprawling tale covers the entire twentieth century and multiple literary styles. It is not dense, however, and it can be enjoyed by readers who know nothing of deconstruction or semiotics . . . Readers will be reminded of the work of John Irving (especially Cider House Rules) with touches of F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . One thing is certain: Nobody will be bored."—Wilmington Star-News"

Julianna Baggott can do anything with words. Anything, I tell you... Wonders is deliberately, playfully strange. It has been made scrumptious with oddities of every conceivable sort....Baggott takes the time to speak truly-about love, about books, about fame, about what it is to be alive."
—New York Journal of Book"

Julianna Baggott's devoted readers have long known that she is a genius who can do whatever she wants. But with Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders she has somehow outdone herself. This novel, about a woman who is stuck telling and living a family story that someone else has written and whose ending has been (maybe) lost forever, reminds me of the best work by the great Steven Millhauser: brainy, self-aware, tender, full of loss, but also full of grace and wonder. This is Julianna Baggott's best book, which is one way of saying it's one of the best books you'll read this year, or any other."—Brock Clarke, author of the national bestseller An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England"

Dazzling and ambitious, Julianna Baggott's gorgeously written new novel explores the miracles born out of desperation of three generations of women, all set against an astounding sweep of twentieth-century history. Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders is a mesmerizing tale of star-crossed love and of the dark secrets in a fracturing family, but it is also a profound meditation on stories themselves: how they create and trap us, how they protect us, and how, even amid great tragedy, they can sometimes make us bloom. This novel is so full of wonders that it leaves you haunted, amazed, and, like every great read, irrevocably changed."—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You"

Julianna Baggott's very winning Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders is only incidentally about a lost masterpiece, a marriage bound by string, and a lunatic literary family. Dig deeper and it's about mothers and daughters and the conflicts and compromises that amount to love."—Joshua Ferris, Man Booker Prize finalist for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
"

Julianna Baggott's richly imagined new novel is filled with laughter and heartbreak, and—most wonderfully—with the bright, pained release of stories, which flutter from these pages like living birds."—Elizabeth Graver, author of The End of the Point, long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award"

All stories worth telling are love stories, a character says in Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders. This novel about a famous writer's lost manuscript, the complex legacy of family secrets, and—yes—a love story that unfolds across generations is inventive, playful, and deeply affecting."
—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
"

An utterly original tale told in four distinct voices, Harriet Wolff's Seventh Book of Wonders is an exhilarating melange of heartrending loss, hilarity, and enchantment. Julianna Baggott has indeed created a book of wonders."—Mira Bartok, author of National Book Critics Circle Award winner and New York Times bestseller The Memory Palace
"

A narrative that delivers a powerful sense of the meaning of motherhood and the bonds between sisters."—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal"

Julianna Baggott's latest novel refuses to be confined to only one genre. Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders is a captivating multigenerational family saga, a love story, and a mystery-tinged with a bit of fantasy . . . Baggott's mesmerizing tale of the resilient ties of motherhood and the bonds between sisters will resonate with a wide variety of readers."
—Bookpage"

Moments of heartbreak balance moments of hilarity in Baggott's ambitious portrait of a family created from equal parts secrecy and love."—Kirkus

Praise for Pure:

"Pure is not just the most extraordinary coming-of-age novel I've ever read, it is also a beautiful and savage metaphorical assessment of how all of us live in this present age. This is an important book by one of our finest writers." —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner"

A great gorgeous whirlwind of a novel, boundless in its imagination. You will be swept away."—Justin Cronin, New York Times bestselling author of The Passage

Praise for The Madam"

A poet has transformed a piece of history into a luminous and epic piece of literature; it's as if John Irving and Djuna Barnes had collaborated, each bringing to the page the fiery best of their various gifts, the dark and lyrical and bizarre and sexual and comical and violent and mysterious and supremely heart-breaking spectacle of wide, wild lives rendered vividly before our eyes."—Antonya Nelson"

Beautifully rendered, this story is as brave and unique and full of surprises as the madam portrayed within it."—Elizabeth Strout, winner of the Pulitzer Prize"

Few writers of the twenty-first century can rival the verve, the energy and the sheer delight in language of Julianna Baggott. Profoundly different from anything she has done before, The Madam is an extraordinary novel which will open a whole new phase of what already looks like a brilliant career."—Madison Smartt Bell

Praise for The Miss America Family"

Julianna Baggott enjoys living on the knife edge between hilarity and heartbreak and that makes her a writer after my own heart."—Richard Russo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Praise for Girl Talk"

For Baggott, cosmic irony is always in the details, the absurd gap between self-knowledge and behavioral excess ... [Her] brand of witty psychological observation is dark and corrosive... [she] has the knack for finding the oxymoronic in any situation."—New York Times Book Review

Library Journal

09/15/2015
Baggott moves from her dystopian trilogy (Pure; Fuse; Burn) to a tale of the legacy of family secrets told through the voices of four women. Harriet Wolf, an acclaimed author of six books of magic realism, which are studied by literature professors and venerated by the Harriet Wolf Society; Eleanor, the "gatekeeper" of her mother's legacy, who keeps the scholars and public at bay and denies the existence of a seventh book; Tilton, Eleanor's younger daughter and the only one who knows where Harriet's final manuscript is hidden, having promised her grandmother to release it only in a family emergency. A medical crisis brings older daughter Ruth, who ran away at 16, back home where they all confront the history of Harriet. The narrative weaves among mother and daughters, interspersed with Harriet's final words. Her legacy and her secrets, which she disguised in her novels, have deeply affected her descendants. Eleanor has an intense need to keep those she loves too close; Ruth flees; and naïve Tilton is locked away from the world and living an almost fairy-tale existence. VERDICT This exquisite and haunting tale of mothers and daughters, love and loss, and fiction vs. reality will satisfy women's fiction fans. [See Prepub Alert, 2/9/15.]—Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA

SEPTEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

The author of six books (and perhaps a seventh?), Harriet Wolf had an early life that was characterized by bizarre and varied events. Her story is revealed in a series of alternating monologues that are perfectly suited to audio and expertly delivered by an ensemble of voices. Harriet details her unusual birth, her 13 years at the Maryland Home for Feeble Children, her recognition as a girl genius, and her lifelong love for a fellow inmate. Jodi Carlisle depicts Harriet’s anxious, resentful daughter, Eleanor, while Katie Koster and Christine Lakin offer spot-on portrayals of her granddaughters, agoraphobic/claustrophobic Tilton and prodigal Ruth. But Harriet is the story’s heart. Susan Silo is outstanding as she rasps and whispers her droll asides, skewering characters with choice observations. Part romance, part mystery, this completely engaging and wondrous tale is an audiobook listeners will want to hear again ASAP. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFIle Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-06-04
The life of Harriet Wolf, beloved (though reclusive) author of a series of fanciful novels, is clouded in mystery, and the rumored existence of the manuscript for a final volume provides grist for the mills of academics, fans, and family members alike. Baggott has written an often whimsical account of long-term damages set in motion by good intentions. Told in four unique, alternating voices—that of Harriet, her daughter, Eleanor, and her two granddaughters, Ruth and Tilton—Baggott's (Burn, 2014) gradual revelation of the meandering course of the enigmatic author's life is part fairy tale, part psychological autopsy. Overcoming an early and erroneous banishment to the Maryland School for Feeble Minded Children, Harriet's tenacity in creating a charmed and charming life for herself, on paper if not in the flesh, is recounted in a series of episodes that span the 20th century. Her descendants' stories range from the bleak to the bizarre, but all take place on the stage Harriet created, and it's her legacy of secrecy and fierce familial loyalty that curses and blesses them all. What's hidden in Harriet's saga is as important as what's visible, and Baggott's tale is sprinkled with promises, secrets, pacts, and more than one case of agoraphobia. When a medical crisis reunites Eleanor, Ruth, and Tilton, the weight of Harriet's prescience is felt while it falls to her family to puzzle out how to continue to live and love in a real world that is not as enchanting as that of her novels. Moments of heartbreak balance moments of hilarity in Baggott's ambitious portrait of a family created from equal parts secrecy and love.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173604231
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/18/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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