Set against the seductive world of 1960s Rio de Janeiro, an exquisite debut novel about family secrets, divided loyalties, and what we're willing to do to save ourselves.
This mesmerizing first novel follows a glamorous family as they prepare to leave the seeming paradise of Brazil for Canada in the wake to the mysterious disappearance -- and presumed drowning -- of their eldest daughter a year earlier. As the novel moves back and forth between the members of the Maurer family, we are taken into the heart of a family whose beauty and charm belie a more troubling reality.
We meet the family's brilliant and charismatic father, whose bipolar extremes are becoming increasingly disturbing; his long-suffering wife, who once had a brief affair that proves to have shattering consequences for the family she swore to protect; their two remaining daughters, both on the brink of understanding the darker currents that run in their once-proud family; and the lost daughter herself, a beautiful young woman undone by her own grand delusions.
Taking readers from the golden beaches of Rio to the poverty of its fishing villages, from the glamour of the legendary Copacabana Club to the austerity of a remote convent, this revelatory novel takes us into the soul of a family already living in the shadow of loss and now poised to leave behind everything they've ever known, if only they could make peace with the past.
Genre: Literary Fiction
This mesmerizing first novel follows a glamorous family as they prepare to leave the seeming paradise of Brazil for Canada in the wake to the mysterious disappearance -- and presumed drowning -- of their eldest daughter a year earlier. As the novel moves back and forth between the members of the Maurer family, we are taken into the heart of a family whose beauty and charm belie a more troubling reality.
We meet the family's brilliant and charismatic father, whose bipolar extremes are becoming increasingly disturbing; his long-suffering wife, who once had a brief affair that proves to have shattering consequences for the family she swore to protect; their two remaining daughters, both on the brink of understanding the darker currents that run in their once-proud family; and the lost daughter herself, a beautiful young woman undone by her own grand delusions.
Taking readers from the golden beaches of Rio to the poverty of its fishing villages, from the glamour of the legendary Copacabana Club to the austerity of a remote convent, this revelatory novel takes us into the soul of a family already living in the shadow of loss and now poised to leave behind everything they've ever known, if only they could make peace with the past.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"At first blush a deft, kaleidoscopic chronicle of a family's grief after the disappearance of a 20-year-old daughter off the shores of Rio de Janeiro, All Is Beauty Now is an unflinching look at the pervasive effect of secreted mental illness. Like the brilliant swirl of Carnival, the Maurer family's story possesses multiple layers of both splendor and affliction. I lost myself in its white sands, birds of paradise, and madness." - Anne Korkeakivi
"All Is Beauty Now is as redolent and lush as a garden in Rio. Sarah Faber performs a poetic conjuring act of loss, love, and redemption in this haunting novel." - Ann-Marie MacDonald
"At once an intimate family portrait, a mystery, a romance, and a stylistic tour de force." - Johanna Skibsrud
"This novel felt alive in my hands as I read it; the writing thrilled me, the setting transported me, and the characters broke my heart. In All Is Beauty Now, Sarah Faber has achieved the rare feat of mixing both gorgeously poetic prose with a plot so absorbing I could hardly look away from its pages. Faber is an important new voice in fiction, and All Is Beauty Now is a masterful and stunning debut." - Amy Stuart
"Part mystery, part family drama, All Is Beauty Now is a vivid and gripping debut about the pain of living with those among us who burn more brightly and delve deep into the dark. Moving deftly from character to character, Sarah Faber unravels a veritable Gordian knot of family ties, revealing what it takes to stay by a loved one who lives life in extremis - as well as what it takes to cut free." - Alissa York
"All Is Beauty Now is as redolent and lush as a garden in Rio. Sarah Faber performs a poetic conjuring act of loss, love, and redemption in this haunting novel." - Ann-Marie MacDonald
"At once an intimate family portrait, a mystery, a romance, and a stylistic tour de force." - Johanna Skibsrud
"This novel felt alive in my hands as I read it; the writing thrilled me, the setting transported me, and the characters broke my heart. In All Is Beauty Now, Sarah Faber has achieved the rare feat of mixing both gorgeously poetic prose with a plot so absorbing I could hardly look away from its pages. Faber is an important new voice in fiction, and All Is Beauty Now is a masterful and stunning debut." - Amy Stuart
"Part mystery, part family drama, All Is Beauty Now is a vivid and gripping debut about the pain of living with those among us who burn more brightly and delve deep into the dark. Moving deftly from character to character, Sarah Faber unravels a veritable Gordian knot of family ties, revealing what it takes to stay by a loved one who lives life in extremis - as well as what it takes to cut free." - Alissa York
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