Maile Meloy, who has been listed as one of the 21 Best Young American Novelists, is the subject of today's feature at the Page 99 Test with her book, A Family Daughter.About the novel, from the author:
A new novel about families, love, and the desire to re-imagine one’s own history.
It’s 1979, and seven-year-old Abby, the youngest member of the close-knit Santerre family, is trapped indoors with the chicken pox during a heat wave. The events set in motion that summer will span decades and continents, as the Santerres become entangled with an aging French playboy, a young eastern European prostitute, a spoiled heiress, and her ailing, jet-set mother.
Among the praise for A Family Daughter:
“A thoroughly original and undeniably brilliant companion piece to Meloy’s debut novel, Liars and Saints.... Each novel stands alone; together they pack a seismic wallop.”Maile Meloy's short stories have been published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Her first story collection, Half in Love, received the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters , the John C. Zacharis Award from Ploughshares, and the PEN/Malamud Award. Her first novel, Liars and Saints, was shortlisted for England’s 2005 Orange Prize. Both books were New York Times Notable Books. She has also received The Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
—Kirkus (starred review)
“In evanescent scenes distinguished by clean, wry prose, Meloy observes the Santerre family, whom readers met in 2003’s Liars and Saints, from a crafty new angle.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Riveting and engrossing, Meloy’s tale of a family struggling with guilt and forgiveness spans decades and crosses continents, proving her status as one of the best literary observers of contemporary American life.”
—Booklist (starred review)
Visit Maile Meloy's website and read an excerpt from A Family Daughter.
The Page 99 Test: A Family Daughter.
--Marshal Zeringue
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