I am pleased to announce the EDIWTB book club for June/July – Goldengrove, by Francine Prose. Thanks to HarperPerennial, I have a number of copies of Goldengrove to give away to readers who would like to participate in the book club.
Here's a description of the book from Amazon:
In Prose's deeply touching and absorbing 15th novel, narrator Nico, 13, comes upon Gerard Manley Hopkins's Spring and Fall (which opens Margaret, are you grieving/ Over Goldengrove unleaving?) in her father's upstate New York bookstore, also named Goldengrove. It's the summer after her adored older sister, Margaret—possessed of beauty, a lovely singing voice and a poetic nature—casually dove from a rowboat in a nearby lake and drowned. In emotive detail, Nico relates the subsequent events of that summer. Nico was a willing confidant and decoy in Margaret's clandestine romance with a high school classmate, Aaron, and Nico now finds that she and Aaron are drawn to each other in their mutual bereavement. Unhinged by grief, Nico's parents are distracted and careless in their oversight of Nico, and Nico is deep in perilous waters before she realizes that she is out of her depth. Prose eschews her familiar satiric mode. She fluidly maintains Nico's tender insights into the human condition as Nico comes to discover her own way of growing up and moving on.
I've wanted to read this one for a while. Here's what Lisa at Books on the Brain had to say about it:
Francine Prose has written a piece of art, a mournful yet exquisite novel that was an absolute pleasure to read. She is amazingly talented and I am thrilled to have discovered this new-to-me author. I’d highly recommend Goldengrove to anyone who enjoys beautiful writing, coming of age stories, or family drama.
**UPDATE: All of the books are spoken for. Sorry!**
If you'd like to participate in the book club for Goldengrove, send me an email at [email protected] with the following information, single-spaced, by Sunday June 13:
Name
Address
Email address
I only have a limited number of copies, so act fast! Once the books are mailed out, I will set a date that gives everyone enough time to read it. Looking forward to the book, and thank you HarperPerennial!