New Releases by Kaye Gibbons

An eleven-year-old girl must rely on wit and courage to survive in this award-winning debut novel, an Oprah Book Club selection. "Filled with lively humor, compassion, and intimacy. . . . Ellen Foster may be the most trustworthy character in recent fiction." —Alice Hoffman, The New York Times Book Review "When I was little, I would think of ways to kill my daddy." With that opening sentence we enter the childhood world of one of the most appealing young heroines in contemporary fiction. Her courage, her humor, and her wisdom are unforgettable as she tells her own story with stunning honesty and insight. This powerful novel, first published in 1987, has become an American classic. Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters''s Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation''s Citation for Fiction. "The life in this novel, the honesty of thought and eye and feeling and word!" —Eudora Welty "The story of a redoubtable girl who overcomes adversity with humor, spunk, and determination. . . . She is a terrific kid, and Ellen Foster is a terrific book." —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World "[A] beautifully written story, compelling in its innocence, is sweet, funny, and sad." — Library Journal

A sequel to the now-classic "Ellen Foster" picks up Ellen''s life five years later, at 15, with a new mother, a home, a mind too large for her surroundings, and a brave and compassionate integrity.

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Ellen Foster,Kaye Gibbons paints intimate family portraits in lyrical prose, using as her palette the rich, vibrant colors of the American South. Sights Unseen shows the author at her most passionate and heartfelt best -- an unforgettable tale of unconditional love, and of a family''s desperate search for normalcy in the midst of mental illness. It is a novel of rare poignancy, wit, and evocative power -- the story of the relationship between Hattie Barnes and her emotionally elusive mother, Maggie, known by their neighbors as "that Barnes woman with all the problems." This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Automne 1918, Elm City, Caroline du Nord. Les premiers cas de grippe espagnole commencent à se répandre. Maureen Ross vit une grossesse difficile, dans l''indifférence de son mari. Fille d''une famille pauvre du Mississipi, elle a épousé Troop Ross, grosse fortune de Caroline du Nord. Troop, homme froid et coupé de ses sentiments, s''est acharné au fil des années de leur mariage à étouffer l''énergie vitale de Maureen qui, de plus en plus isolée, perd jusqu''à l''espoir de survivre à l''accouchement. Dans ce foyer sans amour arrive Mary Oliver, la nièce de Troop. Enfant choyée d''une riche famille de libres-penseurs de Washington, Mary vient aider Maureen dans les dernières semaines de sa grossesse. Horrifiée par le comportement de Troop, elle comprend vite que son devoir est de protéger sa tante. À mesure que le nombre des victimes de l''épidémie augmente, la peur s''empare de la ville et la tension monte dans la maison des Ross. Soutenue par l''amour de Mary, Maureen va trouver la force de renaître à elle-même et de rejeter la tyrannie destructrice de son mari pour s''ouvrir à la vie, triomphant de la mort qui s''acharne sur la maisonnée...

In her darkest yet most redeeming novel, Gibbons scorches us with a Þrestorm of despair-and then resurrects love and hope from its very ashes. Autumn 1918: Rumors of peace are spreading across America, but spreading even faster are the first cases of Spanish influenza, whispering of the epidemic to come. Maureen Ross, well past a safe childbearing age, is experiencing a difficult pregnancy. Her husband, Troop-cold and careless of her condition-is an emotional cripple who has battered her spirit throughout their marriage. As Maureen''s time grows near, she becomes convinced she will die in childbirth. Into this loveless ménage arrives Mary Oliver, Troop''s niece. The sheltered child of a well-to-do, freethinking Washington family, Mary comes to help Maureen in the last weeks of her confinement. Horrified by Troop''s bullying, she soon discovers that her true duty is to protect her aunt. As the influenza spreads and the death toll grows, Troop''s spiteful behaviors worsen. Tormenting his wife, taunting her for her "low birth," hiding her mother''s letters, Troop terrorizes the household. But when Mary fights back, he begins to go over the edge, and Maureen rallies, releasing a stunning thunderstorm of confrontation and, ultimately, finding spiritual renewal. The Boston Globe hailed On the Occasion of My Last Afternoonas "another gift from Kaye Gibbons to the literature celebrating strong women of every age and era." Much the same can be said of Divining Women.

Au soir de sa vie, " en son dernier après-midi ", Emma Garnet Tate se penche sur son passé. Elle a grandi sur une riche plantation de Virginie, entourée de cinq frères et sueurs, d''une mère aimante et profondément bonne, de Clarice, la vieille esclave noire adorée, mais surtout d''un père arriviste, tyrannique et raciste. Le jour où il tue un " nègre " sous ses yeux, Emma prend la fuite. Elle épouse Quincy, un chirurgien yankee, humaniste et défenseur de la cause des Noirs, auprès duquel elle trouve enfin la paix et fonde un foyer. Mais la guerre de Sécession éclate. Le couple choisit alors de se consacrer aux blessés, qu''ils soigneront jour et nuit, jusqu''à l''épuisement. Suivront les deuils, la solitude, les jours heureux aussi, où Emma puisera toujours la force de continuer à combattre contre toutes les injustices.

A "vivid, unsentimental, powerful" portrait of a Southern marriage by the New York Times–bestselling author of Ellen Foster ( Publishers Weekly). "She hasn''t been dead four months and I''ve already eaten to the bottom of the deep freeze. I even ate the green peas. Used to I wouldn''t turn my hand over for green peas . . ." Ruby Stokes has died too young and left her husband, Blinking Jack, behind. With alternating entries from each of them, A Virtuous Woman recounts the tale of their years together in an "exquisitely realised piece of writing" (Elizabeth Buchan, The Mail on Sunday). From their very different backgrounds—Ruby a daughter of wealth, Jack a penniless tenant farmer—to their relationships with their landlord and his family, and the strength they drew from each other in the face of hardship, this story of a marriage is "full of fantastically gritty metaphors . . . A book that will change your dreams" ( The Observer). "Gibbons again flawlessly reproduces the humor and idiom of rural eastern North Carolina." — Library Journal

A Southern woman describes her life--from childhood on a plantation with a tyrannical father, to Civil War nurse in a military hospital with her surgeon husband, to pro-abolitionist in old age.

Een vrouw kijkt terug op het leven van haar moeder, die manisch depressief was.

Pedersen. Orig tit.: Sights unseen. ISBN 82-530-1795-2 Alle gode krefter i familien Barnes samles om å hjelpe moren, Maggie, gjennom hennes sykdom som rammer dem alle - hun er manisk-depressiv. Ekte- mannen stiller opp, men sliter seg ut, ikke minst når Maggie kjører ut all sin seksuelle energi. Barna skygger unna og prøver å takle morens uberegnelige innfall. Men Maggies ville ferd får en brå stopp, og da griper krefter utenfor familien inn. Et nytt liv begynner for Maggie og hennes familie. Kaye Gibbons forrige bok som kom på norsk, "Resept på et lykkelig liv" (1994), fikk positiv omtale av norske kritikere.

In the verdant backwoods of North Carolina, in a sad and singular era, the Birches are unique among women of their time-living gloriously rich it decidedly offbeat lives in a private world ahandoned by men. And though misery often heats a path to their door, headstrong Sophia and her y, brilliant daughter Margaret possess charms to ward off loneliness and despair-thanks to the uncompromising strength, uncommon wisdom, and muscular love of a remarkable matriarch and self-taught healer who calls herself Charlie Kate. In Charms for the Easy Life, Kaye Gibbons has created a luminous, truthtelling novel that gives life to her most passionate and toughminded women yet.

In de eerste helft van deze eeuw zetten drie generaties vrouwen uit een familie zich in voor de gezondheidszorg in Pasquotan County.

Margaret struggles toward adulthood in a world torn apart by the Second World War and complicated by her strong-willed mother, Sophia, and grandmother, Charlie Kate, in a story about three generations of passionate, willful Southern women

" Rédigé à la première personne, tout en phrases apparemment anodines et d''autant plus terribles, ce récit dit beaucoup plus que le destin tragique d''une enfant... Ellen Foster est un de ces romans qui griffent le cœur... "