MARY COIN (Blue Rider Press)
In her first novel since "The God of War, " critically acclaimed author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" photograph as inspiration for a breathtaking reinvention--a story of two women, one famous and one forgotten, and of the remarkable legacy of their singular encounter.
In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road
in Central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman
documenting the migrant laborers who have taken to America's farms in
search of work--little personal information is exchanged and neither has
any way of knowing that their chance encounter has produced the most
iconic image of the Great Depression.
Three vibrant characters
anchor the narrative of "Mary Coin" Mary, the migrant mother herself,
who emerges as a woman with deep reserves of courage and nerve, with
private passions and carefully-guarded secrets. Vera Dare, the
photographer wrestling with creative ambition who makes the choice to
leave her children in order to pursue her work. And Walker Dodge, a
present-day professor of cultural history, who discovers a family
mystery embedded in the picture. In luminous, exquisitely observed
prose, Silver creates an extraordinary tale from a brief moment in
history, and reminds us that though a great photograph can capture the
essence of a moment, it only scratches the surface of a life.
Mary Coin is quite simply one of the best novels I have read in years . . . In her portrayal of a time in American history when survival was often a day-to-day thing, Silver drills down to the absolute essentials: family, love, loss, the perpetual uncertainty of life. Again and again I found myself wondering: How does she know that? Silver's wisdom is rare, and her novel is the work of a master.--Ben Fountain, author of the 2012 National Book Award finalist "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Marisa Silver is the author of two novels, The God of War (a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist) and No Direction Home, and two story collections, Alone With You and Babe in Paradise (a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, and the O. Henry Prize Stories. Silver lives in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin authored The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith and The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Are So Important in a Distracted Time.
Photo by Bader Howar
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| Friday, May 24 at 7:30pm |
| LEILA HOWLAND reads from NANTUCKET BLUE |
| Saturday, May 25 at 3:00pm |
