In My Mother's House: A Novel - Softcover

McMullan, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312318251 ISBN 13: 9780312318253

Publisher: Picador, 2004

Synopsis

In My Mother's House is a beautiful, haunting, and expertly told novel about a daughter's obsession to understand her mother's commitment to silence about their family's experiences during WWII Vienna. The story of Elizabeth and her mother Jenny is remarkable for its fullness of details: the pieces of family silver the grandmother mails to Jenny, piece by piece, over the years; Jenny's vivid memories of her uncle's viola d'amore lessons; the smell of the wood floors in the family's Vienna home. It's an emotional story of what is inherited from one generation to the next.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"Spinning like a two-sided medal, this exquisite novel alternates the voices of two women, and ultimately opposites start to merge: past and present, mother and daughter, Christianity and Judaism, bitterness and reconciliation. I salute Margaret McMullan's elegantly crafted prose, her beautiful restraint, her emotional honesty, and her storytelling power."
--Phillip Lopate, editor of Writing New York

"Compelling . . . McMullan's fascinating account of the complexity of survival will haunt and strengthen its readers. Understanding the traumas of earlier generations is the key to Elizabeth's own liberation in this transporting novel."
--Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Four Spirits

"A haunting and beautifully written novel about the great themes of memory and love. What a fine work this is. Margaret McMullan is a splendid new voice among us."
--Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"Margaret McMullan's ability to storytell is a music she resonates against the heart's hard wisdom. In My Mother's House is an heirloom--one of those novels you pass on to everyone."
--Dale Ray Phillips, author of My People's Waltz

"Beautifully written, evocative, and shot through with the voice of authenticity. It not only shows with great honesty the relationship between mothers and daughters, but also how the ghosts of our ancestors--good and bad--shadow our lives."
--Naomi Ragen, author of The Ghost of Hannah Mendes

"A type of archaeological dig performed within the dark pit of a family's loss, In My Mother's House is surprising in its power to quietly, gracefully, infect the reader with yearning for the places we once claimed but shall never have again."
--Bob Shacochis, author of The Immaculate Invasion and the National Book Award-winning Easy in the Islands

"What an exquisite and elegant novel. This beautiful story of memory and identity, faith and family, proves that Margaret McMullan is the next gifted writer to watch."
--Shirley Ann Grau, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Keepers of the House

"A lovely duet between mother and daughter, between past and future, between Europe and America, between memory and hope. McMullan's voice shines like old silver, polished rich and clear. It's a story of vision and blindness, speech and silence, and the healing that comes from time--it's a book about love." --Beth Lordan, author of And Both Shall Row

"In My Mother's House is like all the best fiction--inevitable, necessary, and finally, almost involuntarily, like music, precise and permanent in the soul. Hurrah for Ms. McMullan."
--Barry Hannah, author of Airships

"A wonderful book-lush and dreamy and beautifully written."
--William Harrison, author of Burton and Speke

About the Author

Margaret McMullan is an English professor at the University of Evansville, Indiana, and the author of a previous novel, When Warhol Was Still Alive.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0312318251
• ISBN 13: 9780312318253
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272