Lily King

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About Lily King
Lily King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad.
Lily’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Her third novel, Father of the Rain (2010), was a New York Times Editors Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year and winner of both the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Maine Fiction Award. Lily's new novel, Euphoria, was released in June 2014. It has drawn significant acclaim so far, being named an Amazon Book of the Month, on the Indie Next List, and hitting numerous summer reading lists from The Boston Globe to O Magazine and USA Today. Reviewed on the cover of The New York Times, Emily Eakin called Euphoria, “a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace.”
Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Writer's Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies.
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"I loved this book not just from the first chapter or the first page but from the first paragraph... The voice is just so honest and riveting and insightful about creativity and life." —Curtis Sittenfeld
An extraordinary new novel of art, love, and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times bestselling author of Euphoria
Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with another instant New York Times bestseller: an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.
Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.
Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
Winner of the 2014 Kirkus Prize
Winner of the 2014 New England Book Award for Fiction
A Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
A Best Book of the Year for:
New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, Vogue, New York Magazine, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Our Man in Boston, Oprah.com, Salon
Euphoria is Lily King’s nationally bestselling breakout novel of three young, gifted anthropologists of the 30’s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives. Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is "dazzling ... suspenseful ... brilliant...an exhilarating novel.”Boston Globe
"Five Tuesdays in Winter moved me, inspired me, thrilled me. It filled up every chamber of my heart. I loved this book." —Ann Patchett
By the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers and Euphoria comes a masterful new collection of short stories
Lily King, one of the most "brilliant" (New York Times Book Review), "wildly talented" (Chicago Tribune), and treasured authors of contemporary fiction, returns after her recent bestselling novels with Five Tuesdays in Winter, her first book of short fiction.
Told in the intimate voices of complex, endearing characters, Five Tuesdays in Winter intriguingly subverts expectations as it explores desire, loss, jolting violence, and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. A reclusive bookseller begins to feel the discomfort of love again. Two college roommates have a devastating middle-aged reunion. A proud old man rages powerlessly in his granddaughter's hospital room. A writer receives a visit from all the men who have tried to suppress her voice.
Romantic, hopeful, brutally raw, and unsparingly honest, this wide-ranging collection of ten selected stories by one of our most accomplished chroniclers of the human heart is an exciting addition to Lily King's oeuvre of acclaimed fiction.
Gardiner Amory’s life is reeling—Nixon is being impeached, his wife is leaving him, and his worldview is rapidly becoming outdated. His daughter, Daley, has spent the first eleven years of her life negotiating her parents’ conflicting worlds: the liberal, socially committed realm of her mother and the conservative, liquor-soaked life of her father. But when the pair divorces, Gardiner’s basest impulses are unleashed in a deluge, the chasm between all of them widens, and Daley is stretched thinly across it.
As she reaches adulthood, Daley rejects the narrow world of her father’s prejudices and embarks on her own life—until Gardiner hits rock bottom. Returning home to help her father get sober, Daley risks everything she’s found beyond him, including a chance at love, in an attempt to repair a trust that was broken long ago . . .
In this Winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, Lily King pulls readers into “a brilliant exploration of the attraction of martyrdom, the intoxication of playing savior. . . . An absorbing, insightful story written in cool, polished prose right to the last conflicted line” (Washington Post).
A Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly Best Novel
Fifteen years ago, English teacher Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at the elite Fayer Academy. Living on the campus off the coast of New England, she worked to become a beloved fixture of the school—and to shelter herself and her son, Peter, from a painful secret she left behind.
Then she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, and the prescribed life Vida has constructed begins to come apart. As Peter bonds with Tom and his new stepsiblings, Vida retreats further into the books she teaches. To embrace life and a chance at happiness, she will have to face the nightmares of her former self—and shed the pain she has held onto for far too long.
Following her multiple award-winning debut, The Pleasing Hour, Lily King has written a “domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller” (Elle).
“King is a wonderfully engaging writer who creates characters and situations we can’t resist.” —The Washington Post
A New York Times Notable Book
Young, inexperienced, and fleeing a terrible personal loss, Rosie—the new au pair to the Tivot family estate in France—finds herself ill at ease when trying to connect with Nicole, the cool, distant, and beautifully polished mother of the three children she cares for. There is something about the woman that both fascinates and unnerves Rosie.
The same is true of the rest of the Tivot clan. Nicole’s dissatisfied husband, Marc, and their children all seem to be caught in an unending struggle against each other for love and acceptance. Only when Rosie is sent to care for Nicole’s now-elderly guardian—the storyteller of the family’s secrets—does she finally discover the truth. There, Rosie will learn of a past darkened by war, duplicity, and a tragedy that still resonates in the Tivot’s lives . . .
With this novel of family, betrayal, and the naïveté of youth, Lily King has spun a story that is “powerful . . . splendid . . . [and all] so assured that it’s hard to believe the book itself is her debut” (The New York Times Book Review).
“Expertly constructed, full of surprises, superbly paced and sweetly sad, King’s book hardly reads like a first novel.” —Publishers Weekly
Aturdida por la repentina muerte de su madre y destrozada tras una aventura amorosa, Casey Peabody llega a Massachusetts en el verano de 1997 sin un plan en mente. La única correspondencia que recibe son invitaciones de boda y notificaciones de deudas.
Casey, que una vez fue una niña prodigio del golf, ahora trabaja de camarera en un restaurante de Harvard Square y alquila una pequeña habitación donde se dedica a escribir una novela, a la que ha estado abocada desde hace seis años.
A sus treinta y un años, sigue aferrándose a un ideal que muchos de sus amigos ya han abandonado: la intención de vivir de su creatividad. Y cuando se enamora de dos hombres completamente opuestos al mismo tiempo, su mundo se fractura todavía más. La lucha de Casey por mantener el equilibrio entre sus ambiciones creativas y las demandas de su vida personal la llevan a límites impensados.
Escritores y amantes nos presenta a una protagonista inteligente y tremendamente vulnerable que vive los últimos coletazos de juventud, un momento en el que cada aspecto de su vida atraviesa una crisis.
Escrita con el humor, la sensibilidad y la inteligencia característicos de King, es una novela cautivadora que explora el estimulante y vertiginoso salto entre el final de una etapa y el comienzo de otra.
"Euforia" es la emocionante historia de un triángulo amoroso en uno de los paisajes más exóticos del mundo, y también es un relato extraordinario sobre los orígenes de la antropología como disciplina de investigación.
A mediados de los años treinta del siglo pasado, tres antropólogos coinciden en Nueva Guinea donde llevan a cabo un trabajo de campo. Uno de ellos, Bankson, un inglés marcado por una infancia desastrosa, se enamorará de Nell, la norteamericana que viaja con su marido Fen para realizar una investigación. El conflicto se detonará progresivamente, la confianza dará paso a los celos, los celos al odio y el odio a la desesperación.
Lily King recrea un turbulento episodio de la vida de la polémica antropóloga Margaret Mead, toma los perfiles tres personajes reales y los sitúa en un paisaje que compartieron dando forma a una trama intensa, adictiva e ingeniosa. Euforia fue uno de los 10 mejores libros de The New York Times en 2014.
Casey è una ragazza di trent’anni che ha fatto un patto con se stessa: non pensare ai soldi e al sesso, almeno al mattino. Appassionata di letteratura e aspirante scrittrice, si è indebitata pesantemente per pagarsi gli studi e ora si ritrova a vivere in una piccola stanza ammuffita e a lavorare come cameriera. Rimane però aggrappata al sogno che quasi tutti i suoi vecchi amici hanno ormai abbandonato e, con ostinata determinazione, ogni mattina scrive. Di recente ha perso la madre, con la quale aveva un rapporto di confidenza profonda e che rappresentava, sebbene vivesse dall’altra parte del paese, la sua unica ancora affettiva. E infine, gli uomini: reduce dall’ennesima relazione fallita in maniera inspiegabile, girovagando per librerie e happening letterari, Casey incontra due scrittori che cambieranno le cose. Da una parte c’è Silas, giovane poeta gentile e sognatore spiantato quanto lei, dall’altra Oscar, maturo padre di famiglia, autore affermato prigioniero del proprio talento…
Con un tocco leggero ed elegante, Lily King ha dato vita a un personaggio indimenticabile, che rappresenta una generazione e uno stato d’animo: quello di chi cerca il proprio posto nel mondo. Accolto negli Stati Uniti con grandissimo calore, Scrittori e amanti ha messo d’accordo pubblico e critica: sostenuto da un ritmo travolgente e punteggiato di un umorismo fine, è un romanzo di rara intensità in cui ciascun lettore sarà in grado di rintracciare una parte della propria esperienza.
«Splendido!».
Elizabeth Strout
«Lily King è uno dei nostri grandi tesori letterari e Scrittori e amanti è pervaso della sua genialità. È accattivante, potente, incisivo, saggio, una storia commovente sul lutto e la sua elaborazione, e su una giovane donna che trova il coraggio per vivere».
Madeline Miller
«Scrittori e amanti mi ha resa felice. È un romanzo soffuso di speranza e gentilezza. Lily King scrive con una grande generosità di spirito».
Ann Patchett
«King ha dato vita a una donna a un passo dalla realizzazione personale, forte abbastanza da stare in piedi da sola: un personaggio simile alla Frances di Parlarne tra amici di Sally Rooney».
«The Boston Globe»
«Delizioso. Un manifesto inequivocabile contro l’infatuazione letteraria per i maschi prodigio, anche – o soprattutto – quando il loro machismo è coperto da strati di lirismo e tenerezza. Un romanzo di una forza emotiva notevole».
«The New York Times Book Review»
Illustration de couverture : Artwork: Geviert, Graphics & Typography Andrea Janas © shutterstock/Norph
Nouvelle-Angleterre, dans les années 1970. A onze ans, Daley n'a qu'un héros, son père. Il est toujours prêt à faire les quatre cent coups avec elle, chante à tue-tête, court nu dans le jardin, tout ça pour la faire rire. Ce que Daley ne comprend pas encore, c'est que ce père qu'elle adore est alcoolique. Bientôt, sa mère demande le divorce, et chacun part vivre de son côté.
Des années plus tard, Daley quitte l'université diplôme en poche et tout juste fiancée. Son frère l'appelle, affolé : leur père est au plus mal, elle doit revenir de toute urgence pour s'occuper de lui. Que choisira-t-elle : partir et fonder sa propre famille ou rester et soutenir celui qui fut son idole ?
Le récit émouvant d'une relation tumultueuse père-fille, à travers quarante années de l'histoire récente des Etats-Unis.