Reading groups! Here's one way we can help
As we craft the inventory here at Destinations Booksellers, we are always on the lookout for great discussion group books. Here's a letter shared with us by Ballantine's Readers' Circle. Some groups will want to tackle this book right away (it came in today!) while others will want to plan for its later release in quality trade paperback. Read and enjoy this letter from the author of A Thread of Grace, by Mary Doria Russell.
Dear Reader,
If you're like me, you might once have thought that history happened somewhere else, comfortably distant in time and place. That illusion is gone. We all know now that the frontlines of war can suddenly appear in our own neighborhoods, without warning.
When I started A Thread of Grace, I thought it would just be a historical thriller about the Jewish underground near Genoa during the Nazi occupation. However I soon realized I was writing a shockingly topical book. For the past four years, TV news bulletins and quotes from the morning paper went directly into the context of World War II, often without changing a word.
Some may find comfort in A Thread of Grace, and for those who don't, I think reading it will make war, occupation, terror and insurgency more comprehensible, if no less tragic and regrettable.
"Corragio" my characters would tell you. "Courage. We are in this together. Make your own story an honorable one."
--Mary Doria Russell
Imagine an author visiting you in your very own living room (by phone, of course).
Enter your book club to win a phone chat with Mary Doria Russell and discuss her NEW novel A THREAD OF GRACE.
A THREAD OF GRACE by Mary Doria Russell
You may be familiar with Russell's first novel, THE SPARROW, a fascinating work of speculative fiction about a failed Jesuit mission to outer space. It was a huge success and continues to be a favorite among book clubs.
This new endeavor--her first in seven years-- is again a morally complex, character-driven novel (Russell's trademark). But unlike THE SPARROW, which explored God's role in our universe, A THREAD OF GRACE is an anti-war novel that presents a world that God has perhaps abandoned. Set against the dramatic backdrop of World War II Italy, this ambitious, engrossing tale will haunt you-- from the first sentence on the first page, to the lamentable last word.
Mary Doria Russell describes her work in the exclusive interview:
Your first two novels were literary science fiction. What made you choose to write historical fiction for your new novel?
Actually while I was writing THE SPARROW, I thought of it as a historical novel that takes place in the future. Whether I was going forward 60 years or back in time 60 years, there was still a need to imagine a place and time that aren't my own. I can't tell you the number of times I've asked myself, "Jeez, Mary, would it kill you to write a story with a middle-aged Ohio housewife as the narrator?" But I don't seem to be interested in writing what I know. I write what I don't know, and what I want to learn about.
Why World War II? Why Italy?
I am a Jew by choice and Italian by heritage. Shortly after I converted to Judaism, I came across a book by Alexander Stille called Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism. My first reaction was, "Italian Jews? I thought I was the only one! What do they eat? Lox parmesan?" There was a section called "The Priest, the Rabbi and the Aviator," which sounds like the set up for a joke, right? But it was all real, and riveting, and I thought, "This has got to be my next story." Everything in that book fascinated me...We've spent 60 years trying to understand what went wrong during the Holocaust. I wanted to know what went right in Italy.
Would you call A THREAD OF GRACE an anti-war novel?
I wrote it to understand why war is perennial. What's the payoff? Why are some men attracted to it, generation after generation? I wanted to make it comprehensible. Wars always seem to start for two reasons: to redress a past injustice and to restore lost honor. Inevitably, wars create new injustices and a different honor is lost. Each war is begun in hope and ends in despair, and each one carries the seeds of its successor. Understanding that depresses the hell out of me. On the other hand, when the whole world appears to permit and reward the basest and most awful of human impulses, acts of decency and goodness are like gems in a dung pile. When else would the simple act of sharing a meal rise to the level of magnificence and courage?
To read the complete interview click here.
Enter to win one of five autographed copies of A THREAD OF GRACE. Send an email to BPGmarketing@randomhouse.com with the subject "Thread of Grace" and be sure to include your snail mail address. Entries must be received by February 15th. Winners will be chosen at random. Good Luck!
Dear Reader,
If you're like me, you might once have thought that history happened somewhere else, comfortably distant in time and place. That illusion is gone. We all know now that the frontlines of war can suddenly appear in our own neighborhoods, without warning.
When I started A Thread of Grace, I thought it would just be a historical thriller about the Jewish underground near Genoa during the Nazi occupation. However I soon realized I was writing a shockingly topical book. For the past four years, TV news bulletins and quotes from the morning paper went directly into the context of World War II, often without changing a word.
Some may find comfort in A Thread of Grace, and for those who don't, I think reading it will make war, occupation, terror and insurgency more comprehensible, if no less tragic and regrettable.
"Corragio" my characters would tell you. "Courage. We are in this together. Make your own story an honorable one."
--Mary Doria Russell
Imagine an author visiting you in your very own living room (by phone, of course).
Enter your book club to win a phone chat with Mary Doria Russell and discuss her NEW novel A THREAD OF GRACE.
A THREAD OF GRACE by Mary Doria Russell
You may be familiar with Russell's first novel, THE SPARROW, a fascinating work of speculative fiction about a failed Jesuit mission to outer space. It was a huge success and continues to be a favorite among book clubs.
This new endeavor--her first in seven years-- is again a morally complex, character-driven novel (Russell's trademark). But unlike THE SPARROW, which explored God's role in our universe, A THREAD OF GRACE is an anti-war novel that presents a world that God has perhaps abandoned. Set against the dramatic backdrop of World War II Italy, this ambitious, engrossing tale will haunt you-- from the first sentence on the first page, to the lamentable last word.
Mary Doria Russell describes her work in the exclusive interview:
Your first two novels were literary science fiction. What made you choose to write historical fiction for your new novel?
Actually while I was writing THE SPARROW, I thought of it as a historical novel that takes place in the future. Whether I was going forward 60 years or back in time 60 years, there was still a need to imagine a place and time that aren't my own. I can't tell you the number of times I've asked myself, "Jeez, Mary, would it kill you to write a story with a middle-aged Ohio housewife as the narrator?" But I don't seem to be interested in writing what I know. I write what I don't know, and what I want to learn about.
Why World War II? Why Italy?
I am a Jew by choice and Italian by heritage. Shortly after I converted to Judaism, I came across a book by Alexander Stille called Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism. My first reaction was, "Italian Jews? I thought I was the only one! What do they eat? Lox parmesan?" There was a section called "The Priest, the Rabbi and the Aviator," which sounds like the set up for a joke, right? But it was all real, and riveting, and I thought, "This has got to be my next story." Everything in that book fascinated me...We've spent 60 years trying to understand what went wrong during the Holocaust. I wanted to know what went right in Italy.
Would you call A THREAD OF GRACE an anti-war novel?
I wrote it to understand why war is perennial. What's the payoff? Why are some men attracted to it, generation after generation? I wanted to make it comprehensible. Wars always seem to start for two reasons: to redress a past injustice and to restore lost honor. Inevitably, wars create new injustices and a different honor is lost. Each war is begun in hope and ends in despair, and each one carries the seeds of its successor. Understanding that depresses the hell out of me. On the other hand, when the whole world appears to permit and reward the basest and most awful of human impulses, acts of decency and goodness are like gems in a dung pile. When else would the simple act of sharing a meal rise to the level of magnificence and courage?
To read the complete interview click here.
Enter to win one of five autographed copies of A THREAD OF GRACE. Send an email to BPGmarketing@randomhouse.com with the subject "Thread of Grace" and be sure to include your snail mail address. Entries must be received by February 15th. Winners will be chosen at random. Good Luck!
posted by All4Word at 7:50 PM
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