[bksvol-discuss] just submitted Bone House
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:50:47 -0400
I just submitted Bone House by Betsy Tobin.
A maid in early 17th-century rural England investigates the death of the
village prostitute in this elegant, haunting debut novel. Dora, a Flemish woman
from "across the water," plied her trade in the village, and was accepted by
the residents and admired by many. Her violent endAshe is found dead at the
bottom of a ravine is therefore all the more mysterious. The unnamed narrator,
a 19-year-old maid to an elderly mistress and her reclusive, deformed son,
Edward, in the Great House, recalls Dora as an earthy and sensual woman, a
teller of stories who was far warmer than the narrator's own mother, the village
midwife. The narrator and her mother care for Dora's misfit son, called Long
Boy, only 11 but "trapped in a man's body," after his mother's death. When
it becomes known that Dora was pregnant when she died and had premonitions of
her fate, the maid begins to investigate. Meanwhile, a foreign-born portrait
painter comes to stay at the Great House, and the narrator is pulled into his
orbit when Edward secretly asks for a commemorative portrait of the dead
Dora. While the village churns with suspicions, the heroine continues her quiet
but obsessive search for the truth. At the same time, her connection to
the painter grows stronger, and she increasingly questions women's place in the
world.
Enjoy.
Amber
Book blog:
http://community.livejournal.com/book_cuddler/
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have
consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give
you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
John Adams
E-Mail: amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx
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