Best Selling Books by Dorothy Allison

A profound portrait of family dynamics in the rural South and “an essential novel” (The New Yorker) “As close to flawless as any reader could ask for . . . The living language [Allison] has created is as exact and innovative as the language of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye.” —The New York Times Book Review One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years The publication of Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina was a landmark event that won the author a National Book Award nomination and launched her into the literary spotlight. Critics have likened Allison to Harper Lee, naming her the first writer of her generation to dramatize the lives and language of poor whites in the South. Since its appearance, the novel has inspired an award-winning film and has been banned from libraries and classrooms, championed by fans, and defended by critics. Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family—a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other’s trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, “cold as death, mean as a snake,” becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney—and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.

Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family''s history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next. Illustrated with photographs from the author''s personal collection, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the Gibson women -- sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts -- and the men who loved them, often abused them, and, nonetheless, shared their destinies. With luminous clarity, Allison explores how desire surprises and what power feels like to a young girl as she confronts abuse. As always, Dorothy Allison is provocative, confrontational, and brutally honest. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, steeped in the hard-won wisdom of experience, expresses the strength of her unique vision with beauty and eloquence.

Trash, Allison''s landmark collection, laid the groundwork for her critically acclaimed Bastard Out of Carolina, the National Book Award finalist that was hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "simply stunning...a wonderful work of fiction by a major talent." In addition to Allison''s classic stories, this new edition of Trash features "Stubborn Girls and Mean Stories," an introduction in which Allison discusses the writing of Trash and "Compassion," a never-before-published short story. First published in 1988, the award-winning Trash showcases Allison at her most fearlessly honest and startlingly vivid. The limitless scope of human emotion and experience are depicted in stories that give aching and eloquent voice to the terrible wounds we inflict on those closest to us. These are tales of loss and redemption; of shame and forgiveness; of love and abuse and the healing power of storytelling. A book that resonates with uncompromising candor and incandescence, Trash is sure to captivate Allison''s legion of readers and win her a devoted new following.

Since the publication of her groundbreaking novel, Bastard Out of Carolina (1992), Dorothy Allison (b. 1949) has been known--as with Larry Brown and Lee Smith--as a purveyor of the "gritty" contemporary South that, in many ways, is worlds away from prevailing "Southern Gothic" representations of the region. Allison has frequently used her position, through passionate lectures and enthusiastic interviews, to give voice to issues dear to her: poverty, working-class life, domestic violence, feminism and women''s relationships, the contemporary South, and gay/lesbian life. Often called a "writer-rock star" and a "cult icon," Allison is a true performer of the written word. At the same time, Allison also takes the craft of writing very seriously. In this collection, spanning almost two decades, Allison the performer and Allison the careful craftsperson both emerge, creating a portrait of a complex woman. The interviews detail Allison''s working-class background in Greenville, South Carolina, as the daughter of a waitress. Allison discusses--with candor and quick wit--her upbringing, her work in a variety of modes (novels, short stories, essays, poetry), and her active participation in the women''s movement of the 1970s. In the absence of a biography of Allison''s life, Conversations with Dorothy Allison presents Allison''s perspectives on her life, literature, and her conflictions over her role as a public figure. Linking her work with African American writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, Allison pioneered the genre of working-class literature, writing a world that is often overlooked and under-studied.

From the author of the "flawless" (The New York Times Book Review) classic Bastard Out of Carolina comes Cavedweller, once again demonstrating Allison''s umatched strengths as a storyteller. Reading "like a thematic sequel" (The New Yorker) to her first novel, Cavedweller tackles questions of forgiveness, mother-daughter bonds, and the strength of the human spirit. When Delia Byrd packs up her old Datsun and her daughter Cissy and gets on the Santa Monica Freeway heading south and east, she is leaving everything she has known for ten years: the tinsel glitter of the rock ''n'' roll world; her dreams of singing and songwriting; and a life lived on credit cards and whiskey with a man who made promises he couldn''t keep. Delia Byrd is going back to Cayro, Georgia, to reclaim her life--and the two daughters she left behind...Told in the incantatory voice of one of America''s most eloquent storytellers, Cavedweller is a sweeping novel of the human spirit, the lost and hidden recesses of the heart, and the place where violence and redemption intersect.

In this collection of essays, autobiographical narratives and performance pieces, the author probes the meaning of all these identities with humour, passion and conviction, as she works out what it means to be queer and happy in a world still arguing about what it means to be queer.

Ida Applebroog (b. 1929) has received international acclaim for the complexly psychological sensibility of her large, multi-paneled paintings. The deceptive, childlike quality of her work masks sometimes startlingly violent themes. This book, which serves as catalog to a major upcoming exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., showcases the work of the painter''s productive past eleven years, and is among the most substantial collections of her art.

Un premier roman largement autobiographique, écrit pour exorciser une enfance brûlée.. En Caroline du Sud, les étés sont étouffants. Les soirées se passent sur la véranda, à boire du thé glacé et à raconter des histoires. Ruth Anne Boatwright, surnommée Bone par sa famille et estampillée " bâtarde " par le comté de Greenville, se souvient. Elle revoit sa grand-mère édentée, impertinente, ses tantes farouches, usées par leurs grossesses, ses oncles violents, ivrognes pris au piège de leur misère. Elle se souvient de l''amour qu''elle portait à sa mère et de la haine grandissante qu''elle éprouvait pour son beau-père. Elle se souvient et elle raconte, avec une brutale sincérité, les aspirations d''une petite fille, la violence insoutenable, l''amour obstiné. Ce premier roman largement autobiographique, écrit pour exorciser cette enfance brûlée, a été finaliste pour le National Book Award en 1992. " Dorothy Allison sonne le retour de la littérature sociale aux États-Unis. Elle est devenue l''écrivain de l''Autre Amérique : celle des Blancs déshérités qui n''ont aucun espoir, aucune croyance, aucun avenir. Avec une force incroyable, Dorothy Allison décrit ce vide et cette violence. " Bernard Géniès, Le Nouvel Observateur

"Oh, no! Terry, Cindy''s little brother, is lost. The family had gone camping and Terry wandered off into the forest. Now, where is he? And - how to find him? It isn''t until Jim and Susie start looking that they figure out a plan. But, will it work? Time is their biggest enemy"--Page 4 of cover