New Releases by Tara Conklin

The New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics delivers a wise, timely, big-hearted novel of unplanned isolation and newly forged community. Where does one go, you might ask, when the world falls apart? When the immutable facts of your life—the mundane, the trivial, the take-for-granted minutiae that once filled every second of every day—suddenly disappear? Where does one go in such dire and unexpected circumstances? I went home, of course. MURBRIDGE COMMUNITY MESSAGE BOARD FREE: 500 cans of corn. Accidentally ordered them online. I really hate corn. Happy to help load. REMINDER: use your own goddamn garbage can for your own goddamn pet waste. I’m looking at you Peter Luflin. REMINDER: monthly Select Board meeting this Friday. Agenda items: 1) sludge removal; 2) upkeep of chime tower; 3) ice rink monitor thank you gift. Questions? Contact Hildegard Hyman, [email protected] Darcy Clipper, prodigal daughter, nearly thirty, has returned home to Murbridge, Massachusetts, after her life takes an unwelcome left turn. Murbridge, Darcy is convinced, will welcome her home and provide a safe space in which she can nurse her wounds and harbor grudges, both real and imagined. But Murbridge, like so much else Darcy thought to be fixed and immutable, has changed. And while Darcy’s first instinct might be to hole herself up in her childhood bedroom, subsisting on Chef Boy-R-Dee and canned chickpeas, it is human nature to do two things: seek out meaningful human connection and respond to anonymous internet postings. As Murbridge begins to take shape around Darcy, both online and in person, Darcy will consider the most fundamental of American questions: What can she ask of her community? And what does she owe it in return?

Histoire sensible d''une famille américaine sur plusieurs décennies, Les Derniers Romantiques interroge sur les liens indéfectibles qui nous unissent à ceux que nous aimons, à la façon dont on peut perdre et retrouver les êtres aimés. Un best-seller du New York Times, plébiscité par la critique et le public américains. Dans un monde en proie au dérèglement climatique, Fiona Skinner, 102 ans, poétesse de renom, vient de donner sa première lecture publique depuis vingt-cinq ans quand une jeune femme se lève dans l''auditorium. Elle lui dit s''appeler Luna. Luna. Une apparition fantomatique... Un prénom surgi du passé... Alors Fiona se souvient. Au cours de l''été 1981, Reine, Caroline, Joe et Fiona Skinner perdent leur père. Puis assistent, impuissants, à la dérive de leur mère. Âgés de 12 à 4 ans et livrés à eux-mêmes, ils ne sortiront pas indemnes, mais soudés à jamais, de cet été-là – qu''ils appelleront par la suite La Grande Parenthèse. Vingt ans plus tard, surviendra une nouvelle tragédie familiale... Émouvant et ambitieux, Les Derniers Romantiques interroge nos choix de vie, les conséquences qu''ils ont sur notre avenir, et les liens qui nous unissent à ceux que nous aimons.

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! “A richly observed novel, both ambitious and welcoming.” -- Meg Wolitzer An Instant New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of the Month by Goodreads • Lithub • Refinery29 • InStyle • HelloGiggles • Real Simple • Parade • PureWow • Bustle A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose—and sometimes rescue—the ones we love. When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time. It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love. A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, The Last Romantics is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories—how they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future.

Virginie, 1848. Joséphine, 17 ans, esclave depuis l''enfance dans une plantation, voit sa maîtresse, l''artiste-peintre Lu Anne Bell dépérir. Ne pouvant plus compter sur sa protection, elle s''enfuit dans l''espoir d''offrir une vie meilleure à l''enfant qu''elle porte. New York, 2004. Lina Sparrow, avocate, défend les droits des descendants d''esclaves. Elle découvre l''histoire de Joséphine, que les experts soupçonnent d''être la véritable artiste à l''origine des tableaux signés Lu Anne Bell. Convaincue d''avoir trouvé le cas parfait pour illustrer la cause qu''elle défend, Lina entreprend de retracer son histoire. Au fil de ses recherches, elle en vient à se questionner sur sa propre famille et sur les mystères entourant la mort de sa mère. En plongeant dans le passé d''une esclave en fuite, Lina pourrait bien se découvrir elle-même...

Tara Conklin – De huisbediende 1852: Josephine is een zeventienjarige huisslaaf op een plantage in Virgina. Ze zorgt voor Lu Anne Bell, haar eigenaar, die amateurschilder is. 2004: Lina Sparrow is een jonge ambitieuze advocaat die schadevergoedingen voor de nazaten van slaven probeert te regelen. Tijdens haar onderzoek ontdekt ze bij toeval dat de schilderijen die aan Lu Anne worden toegeschreven misschien wel door Josephine gemaakt zijn. Linda’s ontdekkingen zetten ook haar eigen wereld op zijn kop. ‘De huisbediende’ van Tara Conklin is krachtig en meeslepend; een good read op z’n best. Het gaat over twee vrouwen die allebei op zoek zijn naar waarheid en gerechtigheid.

“Assured and arresting...You cannot put it down.”” (Chicago Tribune) The House Girl, the historical fiction debut by Tara Conklin, is an unforgettable story of love, history, and a search for justice, set in modern-day New York and 1852 Virginia. Two remarkable women, separated by more than a century, whose lives unexpectedly intertwine . . . 2004: Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves. 1852: Josephine is a seventeen-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm—an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell. It is through her father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers a controversy rocking the art world: art historians now suspect that the revered paintings of Lu Anne Bell, an antebellum artist known for her humanizing portraits of the slaves who worked her Virginia tobacco farm, were actually the work of her house slave, Josephine. A descendant of Josephine''s would be the perfect face for the lawsuit—if Lina can find one. But nothing is known about Josephine''s fate following Lu Anne Bell''s death in 1852. In piecing together Josephine''s story, Lina embarks on a journey that will lead her to question her own life, including the full story of her mother''s mysterious death twenty years before. Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing tale of art and history, love and secrets explores what it means to repair a wrong, and asks whether truth can be more important than justice. Featuring two remarkable, unforgettable heroines, Tara Conklin''s The House Girl is riveting and powerful, literary fiction at its very best.