Amy Bloom

WHITE HOUSES

"My fathers wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.So begins this remarkable novel by Amy Bloom, whose critically acclaimed Away was called a literary triumph (The New York Times). Lucky Us is a brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny novel of love, heartbreak, and luck.Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star and Eva the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iriss ambitions take them across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, and to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine though a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and surprising events, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, the creation of a family, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life, conventional and otherwise. From Brooklyns beauty parlors to Londons West End, a group of unforgettable people love, lie, cheat and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species."

Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle's Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom's work - her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart - come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.

Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle's Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom's work-her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart-come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.

A young woman struggles to come to terms with her friend's murder; a man and his daughter-in-law confess their sins in the most unlikely of places; a daughter returns to her hated father's house to care for him in his final days and discovers an unexpected bond; and, in a set of interlocking stories, two middle-aged friends, married to others, find themselves irresistibly sexually drawn to one another...

A gorgeous, wise and witty new collection of stories about the complexities of love, family and friendship, from the author of Away. A young woman struggles to come to terms with her friend's murder; a man and his daughter-in-law confess their sins in the most unlikely of places; a daughter returns to her hated father's house to care for him in his final days and discovers an unexpected bond; and, in a set of interlocking stories, two middle-aged friends, married to others, find themselves irresistibly sexually drawn to one another. In this sensuous, funny, and heartbreaking new book, Amy Bloom explores the unexpected patterns that love, and its absence, weave into our lives.With her generous and clear-eyed understanding of human complexity and contrariness, the award-winning author introduces us to some of her most unforgettable characters yet.

When Eva's mother abandons her on Iris's front porch, the girls don't seem to have much in common - except, they soon discover, a father. Thrown together with no mothers to care for them and a father who could not be considered a parent, Iris and Eva become one another's family. Iris wants to be a movie star; Eva is her sidekick. Together, they journey across 1940s America from scandal in Hollywood to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island, stumbling, cheating and loving their way through a landscape of war, betrayals and big dreams.

When Eva's mother abandons her on Iris's front porch, the girls don't seem to have much in common - except, they soon discover, a father. Thrown together with no mothers to care for them and a father who could not be considered a parent, Iris and Eva become one another's family. Iris wants to be a movie star; Eva is her sidekick. Together, they journey across 1940s America from scandal in Hollywood to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island, stumbling, cheating and loving their way through a landscape of war, betrayals and big dreams.

Amy Bloom has long been regarded as a master of the short story form. Here, her brilliance shines across two decades and more than twenty-five stories. From the bereaved widow who finds unexpected comfort in 'Sleepwalking', to the matchmaking shrink in 'Psychoanalysis Changed My Life from the teenage girl furious at her dying mother in 'Hold Tight' to the transgressive lovers of 'The Gates Are Closing from the married friends irresistibly drawn to one another in 'William and Clare' to the brave and heartless girl in 'Permafrost' - these are stories brimming with life and grief, erotically charged and beautifully crafted.

Épica e íntima, emocionante, irreverente y conmovedora, una novela brillante, absolutamente romántica: inolvidable. Lillian Leyb tiene apenas 22 años cuando llega a Ellis Island en 1924, una más de los miles de emigrantes rusos que lograron escapar de la tragedia de los pogromos. Lillian ha visto demasiado: el asesinato de sus padres y su marido, la pérdida de su hijita de 3 años, Sophie. Y sin embargo mantiene los ojos bien abiertos y la firme voluntad de ir hacia adelante, siguiendo el dicho yiddish: «Cuando uno debe, puede». Lilian vive en el Lower East Side y consigue un trabajo de costurera para un teatro. Aprende inglés recitando listas de sinónimos y el thesaurus que le facilita su amigo Yaakov, sastre, actor, dramaturgo y su Pigmalión particular. Pero el día que Lillian descubre que su hija Sophie sigue con vida en algún lugar de Siberia, ya no tendrá otro deseo que encontrarla. Emprende entonces un viaje que comienza en un tren que parte de Chicago, y lo que era hasta ahora un nuevo episodio de la emigración en América se convierte en un impresionante relato de supervivencia, de la resistencia de una mujer en busca de su hija, desde los bajos fondos del distrito del jazz en Seatle hasta la salvaje Alaska de los traperos.

"Escribe sobre esto, por favor", me dijo mi marido. El mundo de Amy y su marido Brian cambia para siempre cuando una resonancia magnética confirma una verdad que ya no pueden ignorar. Ante un diagnóstico de alzheimer, Brian decide que quiere morir; quiere dejar la vida mientras siga en pie, no vivir de rodillas. Acompañandose mutuamente en este viaje de despedida, Amy y Brian toman la dificil decision de acudir a Dignitas, una organizacion suiza que defiende el derecho de las personas a morir con dignidad. En esta desgarradora memoria, Amy Bloom narra con dulzura y franqueza la historia de un amor que desafia todos los limites y de uno de los mas valientes adioses que se pueden dar. Una prueba de que el amor a veces tambien significa dejar ir.