Anna Solomon is the author of The Little Bride and The Book of V. She is a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, One Story, Ploughshares, Slate, and MORE. Coeditor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers, Solomon previously worked as a journalist for National Public Radio. She was born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two children.
Chosen as a must-read book for summer 2016 by TIME Magazine,
InStyle, Good Housekeeping, The Millions, the Minneapolis Star
Tribune, and BookPage
“Gorgeously moving . . . a dazzling exploration of the impact of
roads untaken on motherhood, class, and gender. . . . Solomon
expertly works on a large, mesmerizing canvas, with an almost
dizzying array of characters, each moving the terrific drama of the
book. . . . [She] renders each character so exquisitely complex,
they could be the heroes of their own novels. . . . It’s impossible
to stop reading, because Solomon has made us care so much for all
the characters, because she’s fashioned a world so real, you can
taste the salt spray and smell the heady fragrance of the ripe
pears.” —The Boston Globe
“Solomon’s strong prose and fleet pacing consistently provide the
essential pleasures of a good story well told. . . . This is a book
governed…by earnest empathy, a desire to give each character
opportunities for growth and betterment, bravery and openness.”
—Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review
“Solomon is a beautiful writer, and her prose brings people and
scenes achingly alive. . . . Her characters’ struggles with
motherhood and identity would be compelling in any
era.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Leaving Lucy Pear is not just a hypnotic page-turner; it’s
also a beautifully written story of women and motherhood played out
against a 1920s American historical backdrop. . . . With its
lessons about accepting the past and making choices about the
future, Leaving Lucy Pear is a satisfying, insightful,
and memorable book.” —Jewish Book Council
“Solomon does a good job of showing the ways in which different
actors, each trapped by the constraints of sexuality, religion,
ethnicity, and class, act and interpret the actions of others.
Looking out from their isolated, self-interested or self–protective
shells, the characters circle one another, unable to close the
chasms that separate them.” —Lilith Magazine
“Anna Solomon's novel invites you in with tons of
atmosphere, from the foggy New England location to the 1920s
culture to the gender politics. You'll get lost in this story,
which feels truly new and fresh.” —Good Housekeeping
“Beautiful and expansive . . . The connection between these two
mothers, Bea and Emma, is profound and particular.” —Edan
Lepucki, The Millions
“With poetic prose but a larger understanding of the precarious
world of 1920s New England, Solomon proves herself as one of the
most striking novelists of the day.” —The Millions (Most
Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2016 Book Preview)
“Solomon threads class differences and ironies throughout her
sophisticated narrative. . . . Through her ornately descriptive
style, we get to know the inner and outer selves of the
co-mothers.” —The Improper Bostonian
“The worlds of three women collide on the coast of Massachusetts in
the 1920s in this beautifully told tale of a young woman’s journey
to discover herself.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A thoughtful examination of class in the early twentieth century.
. . . Anna Solomon is wise in the ways of mothers and daughters,
the ties that bind, the gulfs that separate. Leaving Lucy
Pear offers unforgettable characters and many small,
meaningful, emotional moments set against the backdrop of larger
history, and Lucy Pear, that strong, smart girl, is a character to
remember and to root for.” —New Orleans Public
Radio's “Reading Life”
“The well-crafted chapters—some could stand alone as short
stories—are handsomely written [and] sometimes poetic. . .
. Leaving Lucy Pear is recommended to readers who enjoy
historical fiction, a cast of well developed mainly female
characters, and handsome prose.” —New York Journal of
Books
“Leaving Lucy Pear works extremely well on multiple levels . .
. but the real highlights are its characters and the author’s clear
empathy for them. . . . With delicate precision, Solomon
illustrates their desires and fears, both voiced and
unvoiced.” —Historical Novel Society
“Spanning the Great War and Prohibition and deftly delving into the
social issues of the time, Leaving Lucy Pear is the perfect
choice for readers who appreciate the rigor and richness of
literary fiction.” —BookPage
“Solomon’s . . . razor-sharp prose scrapes her characters raw as
she plants them deeply in the history and turmoil of 1920s New
England. A beautifully rendered tale of discovering one’s true
nature. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Penetrating. . . . Repeatedly opting for the less predictable
outcome, Solomon reaches resolutions marked with the same
reflective maturity as the rest of this solidly absorbing novel.
Slow-movement storytelling: fully-fleshed, compassionate, and
satisfying.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Ambitious and satisyfing . . . [a] lushly written look at two
women's haunting choices.” —Publishers Weekly
“Quietly powerful. . . . Solomon excels at portraying flawed
characters whose passive-aggressiveness overrides their search for
love and success. But when the two mothers play tug-of-war for
Lucy, readers cannot help but empathize with all involved. [A]
moving story.” —Booklist
“From the first page, I was under the spell of Anna Solomon’s
emotionally engaging novel about the devastating choices we make
and the unexpected consequences they bring. This is a fine literary
tapestry woven with beautiful language, complex characters, and a
precise probing of human desires and demons.” —Sue Monk Kidd, New
York Times bestselling author of The Invention of Wings
“Anna Solomon writes with a poet's reverence for language and a
novelist's ability to keep us turning the page. Leaving Lucy Pear
is a gorgeous and engrossing meditation on motherhood, womanhood,
and the sacrifices we make for love.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, New
York Times–bestselling author of Maine and The Engagements
“Leaving Lucy Pear is that rare combination of stunning language,
raw emotion, and profound wisdom that catches you up and wrings you
out and yet somehow leaves you fuller than when you began. In this
tender new novel, Anna Solomon looks at our most fundamental
relationships—between mothers, children, and lovers—with more
compassion and grace than seems humanly possible.” —Celeste Ng, New
York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You
“In Anna Solomon’s marvelously textured new novel, Cape Ann in the
late 1920s thrums with the issues of the day. When two seemingly
dissimilar women become bound to the same child, we’re given a
piercing and often profound look at motherhood, what it is and
isn’t, as well as the ways suffering makes and unmakes us all,
sometimes many times over. Solomon is an enormously gifted writer,
and her penetrating tale will linger in your mind long after the
last page has turned.” —Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling
author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun
“A marvel of a novel, bursting with intelligence, insight,
compassion, and truth. Anna Solomon is an extraordinarily gifted
storyteller.” —Robin Black, nationally bestselling author of Life
Drawing
“A mosaic of longing: a cast of characters wrestling with lives
they might have led, keeping secrets that could free them, and
building uncertain futures. With great empathy, Anna Solomon
transports us to an evocative and overlooked time and place in this
morally complex and deeply satisfying story.” —Christopher
Castellani, author of All This Talk of Love
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