Bags Full of Reading Goodness

Several weeks ago, I made a general plea to my Facebook author friends. I was interested in putting together a basket of autographed books for my son's school auction. I asked that anyone interested in helping donate a signed copy of her book in return for some publicity on the blog. I was astounded and humbled by the response. Eleven authors sent me one or more copies of their book(s); two others offered, but unfortunately, I was not able to receive their books in time. This generous response from the writing community allowed me to put together two baskets, each valued at approximately $185. I divided the books into two lots and packaged them in bookish totes from Barnes & Noble along with fancy bookmarks.

Here is a list of authors who donated their books. If you are looking for holiday gifts or excellent additions to your own library, please consider purchasing something from this list. I have read most of the books myself; many I've reviewed here on the blog and additional reviews will be forthcoming. They are all excellent reads.

Helene Wecker, THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI
Ann Weisberger, THE PROMISE and THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE
Maryanne O'Hara, CASCADE
Patricia Bracewell, SHADOW ON THE CROWN
Heather Webb, BECOMING JOSEPHINE
Anna Elliott, KITTY BENNET'S DIARY
Susan Spann, CLAWS OF THE CAT and BLADE OF THE SAMURAI
Julie K. Rose, OLEANNA
LJ Cohen, DERELICT, THE BETWEEN, and FUTURE TENSE
Marci Jefferson, GIRL ON THE GOLD COIN
MK Tod, UNRAVELLED
Lucy Pick, PILGRIMAGE
Laura Bradbury, MY GRAPE ESCAPE and MY GRAPE VILLAGE

I am very grateful to my author friends and thrilled that new readers will soon experience their wonderful books. These bags are sure to start a bidding war at the auction! I wish I could bid on them myself.

Thanks again to all involved!

Book-a-Day Challenge: Week 4 Recap

Here is the final installment of my June Book-a-Day responses. The challenge was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. I hope some of the books I've mentioned over the last month have found their way into your To-Be-Read pile.

June 22. Out of print: FRANCIS THE FIRST, FIRST GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE by Francis Hackett. Published in 1934 by Irish journalist and novelist Hackett, this witty biography presents a colorful and fairly accurate account of the French king's exploits. It was the first biography of Francis I ever read. I own a copy of a later edition, but I'd buy a copy of this first edition for the dust jacket alone!

June 23. Made to read at school: As a literature Ph.D, I couldn't possibly count all the books I've been made to read at school! Here's one, though, dating back to college, that I probably never would have picked up on my own: HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad. For whatever reason, I expected to hate it, but it's turned out to be one of my favorite books. I've read it several times, once aloud to my husband as we drove from New Jersey to North Carolina. Sure made the miles pass quickly!

June 24. Hooked me into reading: BARNEY BEAGLE by Jean Bethell. I remember my mom buying me this book at the grocery store when I was five or six years old. I loved this story of the beagle in the pet shop window and the boy brought him home. I kept the book for years, and although I eventually lost it in a move, I've never lost the love of reading it inspired. I still remember how much I treasured that pink and brown Easy Reader...it was the very first book I got to choose for myself.

June 25. Never finished it: PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN by Vanora Bennett. I made it more than halfway through this novel set in Tudor England and then had to keep bumping it to read books scheduled for review. Eventually too much time passed and I realized I'd have to start over to rescue the plot and characters from the mists of memory. I was enjoying the novel and fully intend to finish...will make it one of my TBR goals for the summer.

June 26. Should have sold more copies: I'm changing this one to Should SELL more copies and listing all my writer friends' current books. All these authors have written excellent novels and I want to see their books continue to fly off the shelves! The list includes Heather Webb's BECOMING JOSEPHINE; Susan Spann's CLAWS OF THE CAT and soon-to-be-released BLADE OF THE SAMURAI; Marci McGuire Jefferson's GIRL ON THE GOLDEN COIN; Lisa Janice Cohen's DERELICT; Patricia Bracewell's SHADOW ON THE CROWN; Lucy Pick's PILGRIMAGE; Helene Wecker's THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI; Sophie Perinot's THE SISTER QUEENS; Ann Weisgarber's THE PROMISE; Maryanne O'Hara's CASCADE, and all the wonderful books by Michelle Moran, Christopher W. Gortner, and Catherine Delors. Reader friends can't go wrong by picking up any of these books! How high can we push their numbers?

June 27. Want to be one of the characters: THE HEPTAMERON by Marguerite de Navarre. If I got to be one of the characters in the Queen of Navarre's story collection, I would experience life in Renaissance France and see for myself the places, people and things I love reading and learning about. I would choose to become one of the characters in a tale set at court, or even Parlamente, the figure who, in the collection's frame story, represents the author herself.

June 28. Bought in my favorite independent bookstore: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN. Twain is my husband's favorite author, and I bought this at our local independent bookstore, Towne Center Books, a couple of years ago when it first appeared and kept selling out. The owner of TCB miraculously obtained a copy for me, making my husband one happy camper on his birthday. TCB is a great shop and hosts marvelous events--my friend Susan Spann will be appearing there again in a few weeks' time to celebrate the release of her second Shinobi mystery.

June 29. The one I have reread most often: I really don't like to reread books...there are so many books I haven't read, I hesitate to spend time rereading a story I already know. The two books I've reread most often are GONE WITH THE WIND and KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER, but since I've already used those as answers for other questions, I'll mention GREEN DARKNESS by Anya Seton. I loved this book in high school. When I came across a used copy at a book sale a few years ago, I decided to reread it, hoping to recapture the magic. Unfortunately, the story didn't appeal to me at all thirty years later. Guess I'm not as romantic as I once was!

June 30. Would save if my house burned down: GIRART DE ROUSSILLON ou L'EPOPEE DE BOURGOGNE. I would save this book because it is the most beautiful I own: a full-color facsimile reproduction of the illustrated manuscript of the twelfth century chanson de geste recorded by Jean de Wauquelin in 1453 for the Duke of Burgundy, Philippe Le Bon, who wanted to claim Girart as an illustrious ancestor. An absolute delight to view, it was an extravagant gift from my husband back when we had little money.

#Luckyseven--Book Excerpt

I've been tagged by SHADOW OF THE CROWN author Pat Bracewell to play Lucky 7, an online game for writers. The rules are as follows:

-- Go to page 7 or 77 of your current manuscript.
-- Go to line 7.
-- Copy and post the next 7 lines or sentences, as they are.
-- Tag 7 other people to do the same.

Here is an excerpt from my new novel. In this scene François, the King of France, held captive by Charles Quint, the Holy Roman Emperor, contemplates committing perjury in order to win his freedom:

Never would he forgive the outrage of this unchivalrous captivity; never would he forget. It would lie between them forever, a jagged, ugly sword-slash festering beneath a livid scar, polluting the body and belching pus at the slightest poke. He would hide the wound well, cushion it with gauze, tame its fevered delirium with soothing potions and distracting words. 

Until the day Milan was his. 

François could hold out no longer. It was no surprise Charles failed to treat him like a king, when he feared to act like one.

Thanks, Pat, for the chance to share! Now I'm tagging Heather Webb, Janet Butler Taylor, Liza Perrat, Marci Jefferson, Maryanne O'Hara, Erika Mailman and Lisa Janice Cohen.

Best Reads of 2012

I enjoyed all of the books I read in 2012, but these seven stand out:

THE TWELVE ROOMS OF THE NILE (2012) by Enid Shomer

Hands down my favorite book of the  year, TWELVE ROOMS imagines an impassioned friendship between conflicted spinster Florence Nightingale and ill and unproven writer Gustave Flaubert. Both voyaged along the Nile River as tourists in 1850, though no one knows if they ever actually met. In Shomer's luscious tale, they do, and are forever changed by the experience. Polar opposites motivated by equal measures of sensitivity and ambition, Florence and Gustave find in their relationship the courage necessary to flout conventional roles and devote themselves to heroic callings. A well-paced, adventure-studded plot counterbalances finely nuanced character development and breathtaking descriptive passages.  

ACCIDENTS OF PROVIDENCE (2012) by Stacia Brown

In seventeenth-century England, a unwed glove maker's apprentice gives birth in secret. The next day, the apprentice's employer finds the dead child buried near a slaughterhouse. Did the apprentice kill the child or simply try to hide a stillbirth? The law of the day does not distinguish between the two acts. With seasoned manipulation of chronology and point-of-view, this relatively short novel recounts the apprentice's trial, imprisonment and miraculous fate, as well as the love affair that sets everything in motion. A masterful debut, gripping in both plot and voice.

HOW TO LIVE: OR A LIFE OF MONTAIGNE IN ONE QUESTION AND TWENTY ATTEMPTS AT AN ANSWER (2011) by Sarah Blakewell

Many thanks to Sarah Blakewell for curing me of my aversion to one of the sixteenth century's most revered authors, Michel de Montaigne. Her delightful book, a thoroughly engaging mixture of biography, social history and philosophy, makes Montaigne and his era come alive like no other. Each of the book's twenty chapters confronts the central question that preoccupied Montaigne--how does one live?--by mining his life and Essays for answers: "Pay attention," "Use little tricks," "Question everything." The Sunday Times describes the book as "Superbly conceived and exquisitely written...enormously absorbing," and I couldn't agree more. As Blakewell makes abundantly clear, Montaigne's insights are as relevant today as they were five hundred years ago. Highly recommended for readers curious about the era, the man or human nature itself.

CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA (2009) by Ildefonso Falcones

A sweeping historical novel of fourteenth-century Barcelona in the tradition of Ken Follett and Alexandre Dumas. Arnau Estanyol, son of a fugitive serf, carves a new life for himself as a stoneworker in the free city of Barcelona. His ascent of the city's social ladder parallels the soaring construction of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar, to which he contributes labor, lucre, and love. Revenge for past offenses spurs his success, and his passion for a forbidden woman, the daughter of a Jewish friend, pits him against his beloved adopted brother, a priest of the Inquisition. A very satisfying read that in many ways offers a blueprint for successful historical fiction.

CASCADE (2012) by Maryanne O'Hara

As the fictional town of Cascade, Massachusetts, fights to escape inundation upon the construction of a regional reservoir in 1935, artist and new wife Desdemona Hart struggles to separate duty from desire, disregard from destiny. This luminous first novel, which I reviewed in detail here, explores the theme of drowning, on both the literal and figurative levels, as artist and town fight to preserve their integrity against the onslaught of circumstance. An author to watch, O'Hara writes with the discerning eye and soulful heart of a painter.

SHADOW ON THE CROWN (2013) by Patricia Bracewell

Coming from Viking/Penguin in February 2013, SHADOW ON THE CROWN is the first in a trilogy on Emma of Normandy, whose marriage to an English king in A.D. 1002 set in motion a series of events that would lead to the Norman Conquest of 1066. I will be reviewing Bracewell's novel in detail in January, but as I read an advanced copy in 2012, felt I should include it here. Bracewell does a magnificent job of recreating the early medieval world and breathing life into the events recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Her feisty, clever Emma captures the reader's heart, and the echoes of MacBeth that color the plot make this a suspenseful and highly enjoyable read.

BLUE ASYLUM (2012) by Kathy Hepinstall

A lyrical exploration of love and madness set at a secluded insane asylum during the Civil War. Iris Dunleavy, a plantation wife committed for willful behavior, falls in love with Ambrose Weller, a traumatized soldier given to fits that can only be calmed by focusing on the color blue. Far from mad, cunning Iris yearns for freedom and plots her escape...but dare she take broken Ambrose with her? Stunning language and quirky characters make this novel, alternately harsh and dreamy, linger in memory long after the cover closes.

A Year in Books

Last year, someone asked me how many books I typically read in a year and I realized I didn't know. So this year, I decided to keep a list of all the novels and nonfiction books I read for enjoyment. Here is the complete list:

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
3. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinor Pruitt Stewart
4. The Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
5. The Flower Reader by Elizabeth Loupas
6. The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot
7. My Antonia by Willa Cather
8. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
9. Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
10. The Odds by Stewart O'Nan
11. Cascade by Maryanne O'Hara
12. How to Live, or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
13. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
14. North River by Pete Hamill
15. 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans by Karl Pillemer, Ph.D.
16. The Passion of Artemesia by SusanVreeland
17. The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life by Dinty W. Moore
18. The Expats by Chris Pavone
19. The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
20. The Second Empress by Michelle Moran
21. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall
22. Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall
23. Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell
24. Spirit of Lost Angels by Liza Perrat
25. The Twelve Rooms of the Nile by Enid Shomer
26. Accidents of Providence by Stacia Brown 
27. Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham [currently reading]
28. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese [currently reading]
29. The Malice of Fortune by Michael Ennis [currently reading]

A respectable number of books, considering this list doesn't take into account all the research reading I did for my work in progress. (I will probably only manage to finish one of the last four on the list before the calendar turns, but as they are all hefty books that I've nearly completed, I wanted to account for the time spent reading them.) All in all, a book every two weeks. My English teachers would be proud.

How did I choose the books I read? Several factors guided my choices.

• Last Christmas, I received a Kindle and loaded it up with free classics. Six of the books on the list (Wilde, Stewart, Wharton, Cather, Chopin, and Maugham) were books I'd been meaning to read for years and finally did, in the electronic version.
• Six other books were written by author friends. These books I read and reviewed here on the blog (Loupas, Perinot, O'Hara, Moran, Bracewell [review coming in January], and Perrat). I'm very grateful to these friends for sending me copies of their wonderful novels and allowing me to help spread the word about them.
• Other books were penned by authors who are clients of my agent, Stephanie Cabot, or other agents at The Gernert Company (O'Hara, Jordan, Pavone, O'Nan). Another (Falcones) was recommended to me by Stephanie. It is always very useful and inspiring (and not a little humbling) to see what gorgeous works the agency represents and sells to publishers.
• Several books I found at random on the new book shelf at the library (Gottshcall, Pillemer, Moore, Hepinstall). I love discovering an unexpected gem!
• Others books I picked up because of a review I'd read on the internet (Shomer, Ennis, Verghese, Brown, Bakewell). There are several bloggers and reviewers whose judgment I trust and I hasten to read the books they recommend.
• One book I read because I enjoyed listening to the author speak at the 2011 Historical Novel Society Conference (Vreeland).
• Two others books on the list were works by favorite authors of mine (Hamill and Zafon). I always look forward to reading new work by favorite authors, or working my way through their previously published corpus.

Now, you might ask, which books stood out as my favorite reads from among these twenty-seven? That, friends, will be a post for later in the week, after I draw a winner for the Historical Holiday Blog Hop giveaway!

Historical Holiday Blog Hop Giveway!

Welcome to the First Annual Historical Holiday Blog Hop hosted by Passages to the Past! I have a new, hardback copy of C.W. Gortner's THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI to offer one lucky winner here at Writing the Renaissance. I reviewed THE CONFESSIONS back when it was released in 2010 and can assure you it would make a fine gift for that lover of historical fiction on your list. Or keep it yourself and read it curled up in front of a crackling fire with a warm cup of cocoa!

To enter the random drawing, please leave a comment below with your email contact information. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm ET on December 17. Winner will be posted sometime December 18. Open to continental US entrants only.

But don't stop here! Dozens of other bloggers are participating in this hop, each hosting a giveaway at her site. Go the Passages to the Past for the complete list and get busy hopping!

While you're at it, be sure to leave a comment at Passages to the Past to enter the drawing for one of four grand prize packages. Your favorite historical fiction authors have donated books, many of them signed:

1. Oleanna by Julie Rose (pb)
2. The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell (pb)

3. Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell (Audio Books)

4. The King's Daughter by Barbara Kyle (pb)

5. The King's Concubine by Anne O'Brien (pb)

6. Royal Romances: Titillating Tales of Passion and Power in the Palaces of Europe by Leslie Carroll (pb)

7. The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell (pb)

8. The September Queen by Gillian Bagwell (pb)

9. The Kingmaking by Helen Hollick (pb) *w/signed bookplate

10. The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick (pb) *w/signed bookplate

11. Sea Witch by Helen Hollick (pb) *w/signed bookplate

12. Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell (pb)

13. Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell (pb)

14. The Queen's Vow by Christopher Gortner (pb, UK edition)

15. Into the Path of Gods (Book 1, Macsen's Treasure Series) by Kathleen Cunningham Guler (pb)

16. In the Shadow of Dragons (Book 2, Macsen's Treasure Series) by Kathleen Cunningham Guler (pb)

17. The Anvil Stone (Book 3, Macsen's Treasure Series) by Kathleen Cunningham Guler (hc)

18. A Land Beyond Ravens (Book 4, Macsen's Treasure Series) by Kathleen Cunningham Guler (hc) 

19. Pale Rose of England by Sandra Worth (pb)

20. The Rose of York: Love & War by Sandra Worth (pb)
21. A Dance of Manners (A Regency Anthology) by Susan Flanders, Cynthia Breeding, Kristi Ahlers, Gerri Bowen and Erin Hatton (pb)
22. The Book of Lost Fragrances by MJ Rose (hc)
23. The Sumerton Women by D.L. Bogdan (pb)  
24.  Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland (signed pb)
25.  The Master of Verona by David Blixt (hc)
26. Before Versailles by Karleen Koen (pb)
27. Four Sisters, All Queens by Sherry Jones (pb)
28. At the Mercy of the Queen by Anne Barnhill (pb)
29. What You Long For by Anne Barnhill (pb)
30. Cascade by Maryanne O'Hara (signed hc)
31. The Lady's Slipper by Deborah Swift (pb, UK edition)
32. The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman (signed pb)
33. The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd (pb, with Tower of London Tea Sachets) 
34. The Mischief of the Mistletoe (2 copies - 1 pb, 1 hc - both signed)
35. The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot
36. The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora by Stephanie Thornton (pb w/bookmark)
37. The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith (pb)
38. Illuminations by Mary Sharratt (hc)
39. Selene of Alexandria by Faith L. Justice (2 copies - 1 pb, 1 eBook)
40. A Thing Done by Tinney Sue Heath (2 copies, pb)
41. Rebel Puritan by Jo Ann Butler (pb)
42. The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen (audio cd's)
43. By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan (2 copies, pb)
44. The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (ARC, courtesy of Penguin Publishing)
45. Above All Things by Tanis Rideout (ARC, courtesy of Penguin Publishing)
46. The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh (ARC, courtesy of Penguin Publishing)
47. Movement of Stars by Amy Brill (ARC, courtesy of Penguin Publishing)
48. Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri (ARC, courtesy of Penguin Publishing)
49. The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry (hc)
50. The Virgin Queen's Daughter by Ella March Chase (pb)
51. Three Maids for a Crown by Ella March Chase (pb) 
52. Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn (pb) 
53. The Forgotten Queen by D.L. Bogdan (ARC)
54. The Sign of the Weeping Virgin by Alana White
55. A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick (pb)
56. The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau (signed pb)
57. Second Lisa by Veronica Knox 

Complete contest rules are available at Passages to the Past. Many thanks to the amazing Amy Bruno for organizing the hop.

Thanks for visiting Writing the Renaissance. I hope you'll stay and look around a bit now, or come back soon for a longer visit. Happy reading!

Maryanne O'Hara: Why the 1930s?

Maryanne O'Hara, author of CASCADE, discusses the genesis of her novel and her reasons for choosing to write about America in the 1930's.

Why the 1930s?

by Maryanne O'Hara

Cascade was originally going to be a few different short stories. One was going to be about an artist who worked for Roosevelt’s New Deal public arts projects in the 1930s. I was interested in writing about what had then been a new idea, at least in America: that the artist’s job was just as important as the bricklayer’s or plumber’s. Another story idea was inspired by the ‘threatened town’ setting that had haunted me since I was a child, when I first saw the Quabbin Reservoir, a vast Massachusetts water supply that covers what were once four towns.

These ideas came together as a novel the day I wondered: what would happen if I set an artist’s story in a similarly threatened place? I was particularly interested in challenging myself to write beyond 1930s stereotypes. We hear “The Great Depression” and visualize runs on banks, and people on street corners selling apples. But when I interviewed people who actually lived through those times, I consistently heard, “Oh, yes, it was a terrible time, although it wasn’t so bad for us. My father always had a job.” One neighbor of mine, a brilliant and vivacious woman who almost lived to be 100, told me about the roadster her father bought her for her 17^th birthday, two months after the market crashed in 1929.

I came to realize that it is uncertainty that makes hard times hard for everyone, which is something that everyone can relate to. My characters, Dez and Asa, are managing well enough in Cascade, but at one point, Dez feels for herself “the undercurrent of anxiety that had plagued people everywhere these past years: How much worse can things get? If I have a job, how long can I keep it? What will I do if I lose it?”

Today, our economy is the worst it’s been since those lean Depression years, and yet now, as then, everyone's experience is different. For example, as I write this, I’m on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. Pleasure boats sail the waters. All over the island, shops and restaurants are packed. The Vineyard is a privileged spot, no question, yet it is just as much a microcosm of the USA as anywhere else. Amongst the vacationers who are here for the entire summer, there are many who are here for a single, precious week. The local fishermen are all complaining that catches are low—two stripers caught on a license that allows five, at four dollars a pound, and some days, there are no stripers at all. These fishermen worry about more than the coming winter; they worry about now. And they are just one segment of an island community that hustles to survive during the long months when ferries carry few visitors and the sun sets at 4pm. 

Because I really feel that not a whole lot changes in this world of ours, beyond the magic of mass communication and air travel and such, I wanted to challenge myself to write about the thirties in a way that felt contemporary and real. When you read Edith Wharton, or watch a well-done period movie like “The Best Years of Our Lives,” you realize that good writing is timeless because it portrays people as they are and always have been. So even though Cascade is set in the past, it reveals, I hope, our underlying human sameness. I hope it recognizes the humanity, not just the history, of those who lived before us.

***************************

Maryanne O'Hara earned an MFA from Emerson College and spent many years as Associate Editor for Ploughshares, the award-winning Boston literary journal. Her short fiction has won numerous prizes and has appeared in anthologies and literary journals. CASCADE is her first novel. You can watch the trailer for CASCADE here, as well as visit her website and blog. Maryanne and CASCADE were recently featured in a lengthy feature in the Boston Globe.

Review: CASCADE by Maryanne O'Hara

"There are so many ways of drowning, my dear."

Shakespearean actor and ruined theater owner William Hart never spoke truer words to his daughter Desdemona than these, taken from in the opening pages of Maryanne O'Hara's splendid debut novel, CASCADE (Viking, August 2012). Floodwaters jeopardize the family's hometown of Cascade, Massachusetts, situated on land slated to become a reservoir. Devastating though such destruction would be, physical inundation is but a metaphor for the myriad forces threatening Cascade's inhabitants in 1935. Bankruptcy, foreclosure, and unemployment erode economic security; prejudice, anti-Semitism, and gender stereotyping sow division and distrust. Misunderstanding and unfulfilled promise spark dissatisfaction and boredom; greed and passion prompt ill-considered, life-shattering decisions. Love itself diverges into treacherous currents and inescapable eddies.

Artist and reluctant housewife Desdemona Hart lives the truth of her father's words. In order to save Cascade's famed theater and provide a roof over her dying father's head, Dez marries kind but dull Asa Spaulding, the town pharmacist. She tries to play the devoted wife, but once her father passes away--not before willing the theater to Asa, though he entrusts Dez with the work of preserving and reopening it--Dez realizes she can never become the wife Asa expects. Restless, nostalgic for the vibrant art world she knew in Paris and Boston, she immerses herself in her painting and pursues a relationship with Jacob Solomon, a Jewish artist-turned-traveling salesman. An outdoor tryst not only leads to the accidental drowning of a Water Authority agent but provides circumstantial evidence linking Jacob to the suspicious death of the town doctor. Even more damning, the couple's actions doom Asa's carefully orchestrated plan to force the Water Authority to flood a neighboring town instead of Cascade. Dez longs to flee with Jacob to New York, but Asa's ownership of her beloved theater ties her to him and to Cascade's fate.

As "Dez the wife" founders in a slough of deception, "Dez the artist" successfully navigates Cascade's shoals. She pitches a series of before and after postcards, pre- and post-flooding, to the editor of a national magazine. Wildly successful, the series establishes her professional reputation and opens doors to the New York art scene. Dez wears her role as the town's champion uneasily, however, as her series depends on the ultimate destruction of the milieu she records, a destruction she knows is virtually assured. The satisfaction she gains from her fame and the independence it wins her remain forever colored by the compromises she makes and the losses she suffers in its pursuit.

In this remarkable debut, author Maryanne O'Hara creates a setting as detailed and vivid as the historic postcards she features on her website. From the ornate theater building to the grill at Asa's drugstore to the gazebo on the town green, O'Hara captures the essence of a bucolic New England town of yesteryear. Yet, despite the idyllic setting, nothing and no one is quite what they seem. As complicated and messy as Dez's paint-splotched palette, O'Hara's characters hide more than they reveal, even from themselves, and a deft twist of the plot at the end muddies apparent certitudes. CASCADE evokes a world in transition, a world where immutability is an illusion and security a dream. Unabashedly self-conscious in its musings, the novel examines questions of broad import: How great a role does selfishness play in the execution of grand endeavors? Can art preserve the past? What is worth saving in a world where change is the only constant? Is it possible to escape the rush of duty and expectation and find "a place to breathe"?

Swept up in the beautiful language, striking images and finely nuanced conflicts of CASCADE's fictional world, this reader found herself holding her breath with rapt anticipation as she watched artist and town fight to preserve their integrity against the onslaught of circumstance. Sometimes, she learned, the only way to escape drowning is to fling oneself headfirst into the rapids and ride the current to a distant shore.

*****

Maryanne O'Hara earned an MFA from Emerson College and spent many years as Associate Editor for Ploughshares, the award-winning Boston literary journal. Her short fiction has won numerous prizes and has appeared in anthologies and literary journals. CASCADE is her first novel. You can watch the trailer for CASCADE here, as well as visit her website and blog. Maryanne and CASCADE were recently featured in a lengthy feature in the Boston Globe.

Tomorrow, Writing the Renaissance is pleased to feature a guest post by Maryanne. Please stop by to read why she chose to write about the 1930's.