Ann Packer was born in Stanford, California, in 1959, and grew up near Stanford University, where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and then, after five years working at a publishing company in New York, she went on to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, selling her first short story to The New Yorker a few weeks before receiving her degree. A fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing followed, and she spent two years living in Madison, Wisconsin, which would later become the setting of her first novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier.
Welcome Home, Stranger (2023) Kate Christensen "To the great literature of going home again we can now add Kate Christensen's superb new novel Welcome Home, Stranger, a triumph of intelligence and wit (which will surprise none of her many fans). The prodigal here is a brilliant journalist grieving the loss of a very difficult mother while attempting peace with those she left behind: a resentful sister and an ex-lover who can be neither trusted nor forgotten. A spellbinding book from one of our best chroniclers of the very American struggle to strive for excellence while still living in community with others."
How to Love Your Daughter (2023) Hila Blum "This mesmerizing, quietly harrowing novel begins with a mother's complete estrangement from her adult daughter and works backward to reveal the ways that maternal love can strangle when it was only trying to cradle, can recklessly misdirect when it wanted to protect. Excellent and unforgettable."
Beyond That, the Sea (2023) Laura Spence-Ash "This gorgeous novel, about the profound impact on children and families of even the most benign forms of displacement, marks the debut of a very gifted writer. I adored Laura Spence-Ash's characters and deeply admired her precise, resonant prose. Beyond That, the Sea is a marvel."
Search (2022) Michelle Huneven "It's rare to find a writer as gimlet-eyed and big-hearted as Michelle Huneven, whose gorgeous novels display an unsentimental compassion that sits in delicious counterpoint to their gentle insistence on the truth. The wondrous Search tells the story of a group of people whose task is to unify around an important decision, and if that sounds possible, rest assured that this droll novel will demonstrate in hilarious and painful detail all the ways in which our best intentions run afoul of how powerfully we want what we want. It's a marvelous novel and it has recipes: in other words, it's irresistible."
The Fortunate Ones (2021) Ed Tarkington "To the great literature of anointment, of the young person plucked from obscurity and given a place at the glittering table, we can now add Ed Tarkington’s lovely novel of a young man mystified by his good fortune until the reasons behind it are revealed and the cost is extracted. A beautiful read."
Only the River (2020) Anne Raeff "Anne Raeff is a master of the family novel, and of the diaspora novel, and of the novel that spans decades and continents. Is there nothing she can’t do? With Only the River she gives us, in her trademark exquisite prose, the deeply moving story of two families joined and separated by a tiny patch of land in Nicaragua, a country as passionate and divided as the unforgettable characters who populate this marvelous book."
Shirley (2014) Susan Scarf Merrell "To the great literature of obsession we can now add Susan Scarf Merrell’s brilliant and captivating Shirley, a novel as full of passion and intrigue as any traditional love story. The twist is that the obsessive in these pages is a quiet young academic wife and the object of her fascination is none other than gothic storyteller Shirley Jackson. A fantastically original book."
Turn of Mind (2011) Alice LaPlante "An electrifying book. Thought-provoking, humane, funny, tragic, a tour de force that can't be a first novel - and yet it is."
French Lessons (2011) Ellen Sussman "As inviting as the smell of freshly baked croissants wafting from a Parisian cafe, this is a novel to savor."
Morality Tale (2008) Sylvia Brownrigg "Sylvia Brownrigg tells us more about the emotional politics of modern marriage - and divorce - than I can remeber reading in a long time. Its a bulletin from the front lines: timely, true, and at its heart surprisingly tender."
Lady of the Snakes (2008) Rachel Pastan "Both a clever academic novel and a cunning literary detective story, Lady of the Snakes is perhaps most remarkable in its unflinching and compassionate portrait of its heroine, a young woman struggling to manage the competing demands of marriage, motherhood, and career. This is a marvelous, fearless book."
Yellowcake (2007) Ann Cummins "A gorgeous novel about people who are as tender and ornery and passionate and mixed-up and real as the people we know in real life. I loved them, and I love this book."
(b.1959)
