An Elegant Woman (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781501179570)

For fans of Mary Beth Keane and Jennifer Egan, this powerful, moving multigenerational saga from National Book Award finalist Martha McPhee--ten years in the making--explores one family's story against the sweep of 20th century American history.

Drawn from the author's own family history, An Elegant Woman is a story of discovery and reinvention, following four generations of women in one American family. As Isadora, a novelist, and two of her sisters sift through the artifacts of their forebears' lives, trying to decide what to salvage and what to toss, the narrative shifts to a winter day in 1910 at a train station in Ohio. Two girls wait in the winter cold with their mother--the mercurial Glenna Stewart--to depart for a new life in the West. As Glenna campaigns in Montana for women's suffrage and teaches in one-room schoolhouses, Tommy takes care of her little sister, Katherine: trapping animals, begging, keeping house, cooking, while Katherine goes to school. When Katherine graduates, Tommy makes a decision that will change the course of both of their lives.

A profound meditation on memory, history, and legacy, An Elegant Woman follows one woman over the course of the 20th century, taking the reader from a drought-stricken farm in Montana to a yellow Victorian in Maine; from the halls of a psychiatric hospital in London to a wedding gown fitting at Bergdorf Goodman; from a house in small town Ohio to a family reunion at a sweltering New Jersey pig roast. Framed by Isadora's efforts to retell her grandmother's journey--and understand her own--the novel is an evocative exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, and what we leave out.

Author: Martha McPhee
ISBN-10: 1501179578
ISBN-13: 9781501179570
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Language: English
Published: 06/02/2020
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.70w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 01/01/2020 pg. 47
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2020
Publishers Weekly 04/06/2020
Booklist 05/15/2020 pg. 32