Ana Imagined - Hardcover

Ireland, Perrin

3.44

16 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1555973000 ISBN 13: 9781555973001

Publisher: Graywolf Press, 2000

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Perrin Ireland's debut novel yells the story of two women brought together by the galvanizing forces of war and imagination.

Anne is a privileged writer living in Cambridge and still tormented by a brutal act from her past. Ana is a cosmopolitan Muslim poet living in Sarajevo and enjoying a comfortable middle-class existence. Both are irrevocably changed when the peace of Sarajevo is shattered by snipers' bullets. Anne glimpses Ana's battered face on an evening newscast and begins to wonder how she can possibly respond to this distant suffering.

Ana becomes the story that Anne is compelled to tell. The novel she undertakes-- Ana Imagined-- is a fast-moving, vivid account of Ana's everyday life, transformed overnight by war into a struggle for all that was once taken for granted: food, a night's sleep, an open window, a trip out for ice cream. But what begins as a wrenching tale of survival evolves into a haunting journey of discovery as Ana reveals a secret of her own. In an evocative exploration of the boundaries of compassion and love, we are left mesmerized by the fragility, and resilience, imbedded in the lives of these two women.

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From the Back Cover:

"In Ana Imagined, her extraordinary debut novel, Perrin Ireland explores the creative process, illuminating with powerful revelations those points where fiction and reality meet. Each vivid story neatly housed within another is testament to an abiding strength and faith-- and each serves as reminder that every story has a life all its own. A wonderful novel-- moving and memorable." Jill McCorkle

"Ana Imagined is a powerful, and powerfully unsettling, novel, certainly one of the most original works of art to have been inspired by the horror of Bosnia, and its author, Perrin Ireland, takes more risks than an undercover agent slipping behind enemy lines. I can't help but applaud her steely courage and her steady nerve, both put to such high service: this remarkable book." Bob Shacochis

"Perrin Ireland is a fearless writer and Ana Imagined is a novel of unusual imagination and depth. As the narrative shuttles between Bosnia and Boston, she introduces us to two splendid heroines and forces us to consider once again the perilous intersection of public and private history. A remarkable debut." Margot Livesey

"I am full of admiration for Ana Imagined, a page turner with many daring scenes, which draws two moving portraits of women who have undergone traumas but continue with their lives. This action-filled novel provides such a wonderful balance between the two stories, and all the skillful parallels work. I have nothing but compliments." Sheila Kohler

About the Author:

Perrin Ireland has worked as a film-maker and as Associate Director for Drama and Arts at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and as a senior program officer at the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ana Imagined is her first book.

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