Dreaming Maples

A baby born under a Renoir painting at an art museum?

That's one of the climactic scenes from Dreaming Maples, a mother/daughter story that follows bohemian artist Candace Burdett as she attempts to prove a point: that she can do a better job as a mother than her own mother, Eileen.

But despite her good intentions, adolescent Candace quickly learns a lesson: she has more of her mother inside her than she cares to admit. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, this mesmerizing first novel weaves Candace's harrowing story around the painfully honest diaries kept by Eileen during her own pregnancy with Candace, reminding readers that heartbreaking family dramas make circles around each other, wreaking havoc in successive generations.

In the end, Candace finds herself in her grandmother Audrey's Vermont sugar maple forest, fighting life and death decisions, and it is there that she finally has to come to terms with her terror, and her mother. Together, these powerfully drawn characters plunge toward an ending that will keep readers spellbound.

Claudia Ricci, the mother of three, is a full-time teacher of English and writing at SUNY Albany. She has published fiction and poetry in several literary magazines nationwide, including Another Chicago Magazine, Alaska Quarterly, The MacGuffin, Blueline, Reed, 13th Moon, Yemassee, and Barkeater. For many years, she worked as a journalist, first at the Chicago Sun-Times, and later as a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal. This is Ricci's first novel. She is the author of three other novels, Sister Mysteries, Eyes on Orion, and Pearly Everlasting. She lives with her husband and children in New York's Columbia County.