What is Leslie Archer reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Leslie Archer, author of The Girl at the Border: A Novel.

His entry begins:

I just finished reading a rather shocking novel, Out. Like all of Natsuo Kirino’s books, this one is about the role of women in modern-day Japan, a commentary on the hardships and depredations Japanese society heaps on them, and how powerless they find their lives. Everything about the novel is fascinating. I love her writing, and, luckily, she is translated quite well. A group of women- all with their own varied difficulties – are trying to make ends meet by working nights in a factory line that assembles pre-made packaged lunches. Taken simply on the level of learning about another culture so foreign to Americans is fascinating, but when one of the group strangles her abusive husband the four’s lives spiral down into the darkest depths of...[read on]

About The Girl at the Border, from the publisher:

One girl missing, one woman searching, both equally lost. Will a shared tragedy help them find their way home—even in the face of imminent danger?

Renowned archaeologist Richard Mathis is half a world away on the island of Crete when he learns his daughter, Bella, has gone missing. Within twenty minutes, he’s on his way back to the States. Two days later, he’s dead.

Richard’s young assistant, Angela Chase, is devastated by the loss of the man who had become both mentor and friend, and she’s determined to find the missing girl, who seems to have made dangerous connections—and whose lonely childhood so resembles Angela’s own. Born Laurel Springfield, Angela now spends her days digging up the origins of a lost civilization while struggling to keep her own past buried. But will the search for Bella expose Angela’s carefully disguised identity—and will she find Bella before she’s lost forever?

Visit Leslie Archer's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Girl at the Border.

Writers Read: Leslie Archer.

--Marshal Zeringue