Cruel Beautiful World (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic) - Hardcover

Leavitt, Caroline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410493563 ISBN 13: 9781410493569

Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print, 2016

Synopsis

Caroline Leavitt is at her mesmerizing best in this haunting, nuanced portrait of love, sisters, and the impossible legacy of family. It s 1969, and sixteen-year-old Lucy is about to run away to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that will have vicious repercussions for both her and her older sister, Charlotte. As Lucy s default caretaker for most of their lives, Charlotte s youth has been marked by the burden of responsibility, but never more so than when Lucy s dream of a rural paradise turns into a nightmare."Cruel Beautiful World" examines the intricate, infinitesimal distance between seduction and love, loyalty and duty, and explores what happens when you re responsible for things you cannot fix. "

About this title

From the Author:

When I was 17, a friend of mine was murdered by her much older, more controlling boyfriend--someone she had been with for five years. I never forgot it, but until I was in a controlling relationship of my own years later (Google my story "The Grief Diet,") I couldn't understand how someone could stay. I set the novel in 1969 and 1970, the time when the peace and love movement began to turn ugly, when Woodstock turned into Altamont and the Manson murders. The novel is so much about how we yearn to fix things and fix people, but sometimes we cannot, no matter how hard we try. Sometimes all you can do is step back and let life wash over you.

From the Back Cover:

Set in the early 1970s against the specter of the Manson girls, when the peace and love movement begins to turn ugly, this is the story of a runaway teenager's disappearance and her sister's quest to discover the truth.
 
"Leavitt's most accomplished book yet, Cruel Beautiful World, is a seamless triumph of storytelling."
-- Gail Godwin, author of Flora
 
            Caroline Leavitt is at her mesmerizing best in this haunting, nuanced portrait of love, sisters, and the impossible legacy of family.
            It's 1969, and sixteen-year-old Lucy is about to run away with a much older man to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that will have vicious repercussions for both her and her older sister, Charlotte. As Lucy's default caretaker for most of their lives, Charlotte's youth has been marked by the burden ofresponsibility, but never more so than when Lucy's dream of a rural paradise turns into a nightmare.
            With gorgeous prose and indelible characters, CruelBeautiful World examines the intricate, infinitesimal distance between seduction and love, loyalty and duty, and what happens when you're responsible for things you can't fix.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1410493563
• ISBN 13: 9781410493569
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 545