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WORK TITLE: All Is Beauty Now
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Cape Breton Island
STATE: NS
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Canadian
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/sarah-faber/ * http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/features/an-interview-with-sarah-faber
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2017117597
Descriptive conventions:
rda
LC classification: PR9199.4.F33
Personal name heading:
Faber, Sarah, 1975-
Birth date: 1975
Found in: All is beauty now, 2017: title page (Sarah Faber) dust
jacket flap (received an MA in Creative Writing and
English Literature from Concordia University; originally
from Toronto, now lives in Cape Breton; this is her
first novel)
Amicus, viewed Sept. 1, 2017: ((access point: Faber, Sarah,
1975-; usage: Sarah Faber; Canadian; born 1975)
================================================================================
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Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Born 1975, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; married Oisín Curran (a writer); children: yes.
EDUCATION:Concordia University, M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
WRITINGS
Contributor to Matrix and Brick.
SIDELIGHTS
Sarah Faber is a Toronto-born writer. She completed a M.A. in creative writing from Concordia University. Faber has contributed to Matrix and Brick.
Faber published her first novel, All Is Beauty Now, in 2017. Set in Rio in the 1960s, the story centers around a Brazilian family preparing to migrate to Canada. When daughter Luiza disappears at the beach one day, her family falls apart. Mother Dora is unable to accept that her daughter is lost for good. Sisters Magda and Evie fall into a cloud of confusion over the state of their family. Meanwhile, father Hugo descends into a dark place as his bipolar conditions worsens.
In an article in the Chronicle Herald, Jen Taplin recorded that Faber got the inspiration to write this story set in Brazil from hearing her extended family talk about it. Even though she had never traveled to Brazil, Faber realized that “hearing their stories and speaking Portuguese, and listening to the music of my childhood, I was just fascinated by it.” Taplin also pointed out that “Faber started the book ten years ago and worked on it while raising two kids, working and finishing a masters degree. For Faber it was a way to honour her Brazilian heritage, her late mother, and to visit the Brazil of her imagination.”
In an article in the Washington Independent Review of Books, Adriana Delgado talked with Faber about the challenges in writing her debut novel. When asked which character was the most difficult to place, Faber shared: “I think Dora was the hardest to write overall because she’s the most emotionally restrained (and I’m not!). Also, her choices as a mother are sometimes hard to understand, and even though I was writing her, I sometimes became frustrated with her. But it would be too dull if everyone in the novel had similar temperaments. I’m drawn to contrast, and there’s an interesting tension that arises given that she can be quite remote, while her husband is very demonstrative and mercurial.”
Booklist contributor Bridget Thoreson stated: “Richly realized and filled with tantalizing secrets,” All Is Beauty Now “offers a dramatic look at one family’s struggle to survive.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly opined that “readers will lose themselves in this delicately wrought, heartbreaking tale.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor recorded: “Notable for its lovely prose and melancholy empathy,” All Is Beauty Now “is slowed by its narrow focus and circularity. There’s a peaceful conclusion waiting, though, for readers happy to stay the course.” Writing in RT Book Reviews, John Jacobson reasoned that “at its core, All Is Beauty Now is a meditation written from the heart. Faber’s debut novel is emotionally rich.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July 1, 2017, Bridget Thoreson, review of All Is Beauty Now, p. 15.
Chronicle Herald, October 25, 2017, Jen Taplin, “Cape Breton Author Sarah Faber’s First Novel a Story of Betrayal, Loss, Guilt.”
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2017, review of All Is Beauty Now.
Publishers Weekly, June 26, 2017, review of All Is Beauty Now, p. 150.
ONLINE
RT Book Reviews, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (March 26, 2018), John Jacobson, review of All Is Beauty Now.
Transatlantic Agency Website, http://transatlanticagency.com/ (April 8, 2018), author profile.
Washington Independent Review of Books, http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/ (September 19, 2017), Adriana Delgado, author interview.
Sarah Faber received an MA in Creative Writing and English Literature from Concordia University. Her writing has appeared in Matrix and Brick. Originally, from Toronto, Sarah now lives in Cape Breton with her husband, writer Oisín Curran, and their children. All is Beauty Now is her first novel.
An Interview with Sarah Faber
Adriana Delgado
September 19, 2017
The debut novelist talks Rio, family strife, and the challenge of writing complex characters.
In her debut novel, All Is Beauty Now, Sarah Faber combines the raw splendor of Rio de Janeiro with family tragedy. In 1960s Brazil, the Maurers seem to enjoy a picture-perfect life. But scratch beneath the surface and things are far from idyllic. Hugo, the patriarch and a Canadian expat, battles with a mental illness that slowly withers the dashing man he used to be.
His wife, Dora, tries her best to deal with the strain of a volatile husband and the responsibility of caring for three daughters. Often overwhelmed, she allows herself to be swept up into an ill-advised affair that will have dire consequences for her already-troubled family.
But the true test for the Maurers presents itself when their eldest daughter, Luiza, apparently drowns at sea, although her body is never recovered. As the novel progresses, Dora, Hugo, and their two other daughters will find their lives altered in ways that will either bond them forever or break them up for good.
What inspired you to write this story?
I was largely inspired by my family’s stories about their lives in Brazil before moving to Canada in the early 1950s. I think, in general, I’m drawn to stories of people living in extremis, or in unusual circumstances. My grandfather was diagnosed as bipolar when that condition was little understood, and I was drawn to the contrast of their living in such a beautiful place while dealing with a very unpredictable condition. Their lives could be quite exciting at times, but there were also periods of profound sadness and melancholy, and all the while, they were living in a country associated with celebration, but which also has a strong undercurrent of loss and melancholy.
In the novel, the descriptions of Rio are extraordinarily detailed. Have you lived there?
No! And I do worry that perhaps it was presumptuous to write a book set in a place I haven’t been to, and that Brazilians might read it and be horrified. But I did do a tremendous amount of research. I consulted maps, films, documentaries, and photographs, as well as books. I also grilled my Brazilian relatives and asked my aunt to vet it. But in the end, I don’t necessarily think it needs to be perfectly accurate. Rather, my hope is that it’s convincing.
How did the idea for this novel come about?
I used the basic structure of my family and the broad biographical strokes of their lives in Brazil. I took the idea of the missing daughter from the fact that my mother’s eldest sister died in her early 40s, and while I felt like it would be too painful and personal to write about the particular details of her death, I did want to write about loss and grief, and all the fault lines they can create — or deepen — within a family.
Luiza disappears at a moment when the family is in the process of uprooting themselves from Rio to move to Canada. Is her vanishing a catalyst for, or more of a consequence of, the family’s deterioration that follows?
I think it’s both. The Maurer family has this narrative or mythology they’ve constructed about themselves that their community shares to some degree: that they have — until recently — had a golden, almost Edenic kind of life. They want to believe that it’s the father’s illness and Luiza’s disappearance that have caused their fall. But as the novel unfolds, we come to find that their lives have been unraveling for years.
Why are the lives of the women in the family undone so violently as a direct result of the actions (or non-actions) of the men?
At that time (and, of course, still in many places), the course of women’s lives were determined to a large degree by men, particularly their husbands and fathers. Even though a woman could have in the early 60s become educated and independent, it wasn’t always encouraged. I think women could sense that change was coming, and were restless for it, but weren’t quite at that point where they could fully define themselves apart from men, from male desire and expectation. So, you sense in both Dora and Luiza the possibility for that change, but also the frustration of not quite yet being able to attain it. Luiza, however, being younger, seems like she might actually make that shift, but the “how” still eludes during the span of the book.
Which character presented the biggest challenge?
I think Dora was the hardest to write overall because she’s the most emotionally restrained (and I’m not!). Also, her choices as a mother are sometimes hard to understand, and even though I was writing her, I sometimes became frustrated with her. But it would be too dull if everyone in the novel had similar temperaments. I’m drawn to contrast, and there’s an interesting tension that arises given that she can be quite remote, while her husband is very demonstrative and mercurial.
Would you say the novel is a study about the difficulty of keeping a family together when dealing with mental illness?
That’s certainly part of it, though I like to think it’s about many things. I think I was really drawn to other themes, as well, such as nostalgia and how it can corrode as well as gild our memories. Also, how families create their own mythologies, and how we all construct various narratives about the people we love and ourselves as a way of dealing with uncertainty, and we can sometimes oppress those we love in doing so.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m working on another novel based on a real murder that took place in the 1920s. I’ve done a lot of research, and I’m really excited about getting into the actual writing.
Cape Breton author Sarah Faber’s first novel a story of betrayal, loss, guilt
JEN TAPLIN
Published October 25, 2017 - 8:14am
Cape Breton author Sarah Faber set her first novel, All is Beauty Now, in Brazil, the homeland of her mother and other relatives. (STEVE RANKIN)
Cape Breton author Sarah Faber set her first novel, All is Beauty Now, in Brazil, the homeland of her mother and other relatives. (STEVE RANKIN)
Brazil has been a rich, vibrant character for Sarah Faber her entire life.
The Cape Breton author was raised on stories of Brazil from her mother and family. And even though she never set foot there, Faber based her first novel, All is Beauty Now, in Brazil. With such a passion for the country it’s hard to believe she’s never been.
“It’s a potentially outrageous thing to write a book set in a country you’ve never been to,” Faber said, laughing. “Growing up and hearing my mom, aunt and grandmother and even some of my cousins, hearing their stories and speaking Portuguese, and listening to the music of my childhood, I was just fascinated by it.”
It occupied such a huge space in her imagination for so long, Faber said she felt she had to write about it.
It’s the story of a family dealing with loss, mental illness, betrayal and guilt in early 1960s Brazil. One day in 1962, the oldest daughter, 20-year-old Luiza, walks into the water at a crowded beach in Rio de Janeiro and vanishes. Luiza struggled with the weight of guilt, realizing the family’s wealth and lifestyle was built on a history of slavery.
The family, who had been planning a move to Canada for treatment of the father’s bipolar disorder, puts everything on hold to search for Luiza. The story is told through the point of view of all five family members, the parents and the three daughters, as they come to grips with tragedy and their past.
The father in the book is loosely based on Faber’s grandfather, who had bipolar disorder. He was a Canadian veteran who moved to Brazil for work. He then moved his Brazilian-born family back to Canada to seek treatment for his bipolar disorder when it became increasingly extreme.
He died when Faber was young, but the family stories of his actions lived on.
“He would do things that were in some ways really exciting to a child who can’t understand it’s a mental illness . . . He would wake (the kids) up in the middle of the night and say, ‘Let’s go see snow in the mountains,” she said.
Faber grew up with her mother in the east end of Toronto while her father divided his time between Cape Breton and Toronto. Her father, who had immigrated to England when he was in his 20s, visited Cape Breton on holiday once and loved it. The love of Cape Breton ran in the family: Faber, her husband and children moved from Montreal to Cape Breton four years ago.
Her mother, who died 19 years ago, had so many stories of her life in Brazil and her enigmatic father.
“My mom had this story about when they were living in Toronto he went out to Yorkville . . . found a barefoot poet on the street and hired him to come home and write poetry for the family.”
The children often saw only the one extreme because when he was depressed he was usually hospitalized. Faber said she wanted to capture how children see the impact of a parent who is bipolar.
“I tried to understand a bit more of a child’s point of view and how they understand, how they grapple with what’s going on in their family with the limited information they have.”
The story picks up again nearly a year after Luiza’s disappearance as the family accepts that she’s gone and prepares again to move to Canada.
“It’s this really painful time because they’re still grieving and they still don’t know what happened. It must be the worst type of grief.”
But suddenly, with new leads, the search is resurrected and the move is put on hold again.
Faber started the book 10 years ago and worked on it while raising two kids, working and finishing a masters degree. For Faber it was a way to honour her Brazilian heritage, her late mother, and to visit the Brazil of her imagination.
All Is Beauty Now
Bridget Thoreson
Booklist. 113.21 (July 1, 2017): p15.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
All Is Beauty Now.
By Sarah Faber.
Aug. 2017. 400p. Little, Brown, $26 (9780316394963); e-book, $13.99 (9780316394949).
There were many witnesses at the beach to the moments just before Luiza disappeared. But no one actually saw her vanish under the surface of the sea. Suddenly she was just gone. The loss of this sensitive, peculiar young woman, who had kept her father grounded during his fits of mania and bouts of depression, leaves a deep void in her family. They had been planning to leave Brazil for Canada, the father's homeland. Instead, they must grapple with life without Luiza and the cracks now being exposed beneath the polished veneer they had presented to the world. In her debut novel, Faber offers tantalizing glimpses of Copacabana high society during the golden age of the 1960s, leavened with the private pain and seedy poverty that lie beneath. She delves deeply into the interior lives of Luiza's parents and her two younger sisters, carefully exposing the challenges each one faces in the wake of Luiza's disappearance. Richly realized and filled with tantalizing secrets, this novel offers a dramatic look at one family's struggle to survive.--Bridget Thoreson
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Thoreson, Bridget. "All Is Beauty Now." Booklist, 1 July 2017, p. 15. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499862668/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=578f93ae. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499862668
All is Beauty Now
Publishers Weekly. 264.26 (June 26, 2017): p150.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
All is Beauty Now
Sarah Faber. Little, Brown, $26 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-39496-3
In 1962, a well-to-do family in Brazil suffers the fallout at home and in their social orbit when 20-year-old daughter Luiza wades into the ocean and never emerges. The Maurers have it all: a lovely home and a stylish social circle, but the trauma of the restless Luiza's disappearance reveals deep pain that lies below the surface. Luiza's beautiful mother, Dora, whom Luiza very much resembles, acutely feels the loss of her first child but never gives up hope of her safe return; Luiza's younger sisters, the intense Magda and sensitive Evie, are left adrift in the wake of her disappearance; and Luiza's father Hugo's bipolar disorder gets worse. Told from multiple points of view, even Luiza's, this debut infuses the fierce familial love with the bitter ache of dreams lost and secrets kept. Faber's swirling, dreamlike prose paints a wildly beautiful Brazil. Readers will lose themselves in this delicately wrought, heartbreaking tale. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"All is Beauty Now." Publishers Weekly, 26 June 2017, p. 150. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497444213/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2d0d0261. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497444213
Faber, Sarah: ALL IS BEAUTY NOW
Kirkus Reviews. (June 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Faber, Sarah ALL IS BEAUTY NOW Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $26.00 8, 8 ISBN: 978-0-316-39496-3
The loss of a beloved daughter, presumed drowned, exposes the secrets and heartache behind the facade of a perfect-seeming family.It's 1962 and the Maurer family's existence in Confederacao, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, is glamorous and privileged. Brilliant, mercurial Hugo, a Canadian employed by BrazCan, feels liberated by "this golden town"; his beautiful wife, Dora, with her wealthy Brazilian roots, is at home here; and their three daughters enjoy the beaches, their own lush garden, and the care of servants. But the Maurers' life is not quite as flawless as it seems. Charismatic Hugo is subject to extreme mood swings: sometimes he's overflowing with impulses, ideas, and energy, while at others times he's cowed and despairing. Luiza, his eldest daughter, with whom he has a special bond, finds herself taking on some of the adult role of caring for him, while Dora feels guilty for diminishing her child's "capacity to live a normal, starry young-girl life." As Hugo's illness deepens, the family's finances oblige them to move back to Canada, but then, just before their departure, Luiza goes missing from the beach. Faber's pensive, psychologically probing debut is tireless in its mapping of the Maurers' geometry, tracing each family member's feelings from a point a year later, after Luiza's symbolic funeral. The Maurers' plans to leave the country have resumed, but then come rumors that Luiza might not have drowned after all. This slow, late plot thread, though welcome, isn't quite enough to energize a story so preoccupied with the delicate inner fretwork of psychological perspectives. Notable for its lovely prose and melancholy empathy, the book is slowed by its narrow focus and circularity. There's a peaceful conclusion waiting, though, for readers happy to stay the course. At its best, a finely observed consideration of how mental illness impacts an entire family.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Faber, Sarah: ALL IS BEAUTY NOW." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A493329274/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2573781f. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329274
ALL IS BEAUTY NOW
Author(s):
Sarah Faber
At its core, All Is Beauty Now is a meditation written from the heart. Faber’s debut novel is emotionally rich as it explores the ways in which wealth, familial bonds and mental illness affect a single family living in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. The story is exquisitely slow as it explores these threads. It’s graceful and haunting. Seasoned romance readers should know that it does end happily, but not the way genre romance typically does. All Is Beauty Now is a novel that will speak to readers of general and literary fiction who want a sumptuous exploration of privilege and grief.
The Maurer family is wealthy and content living in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro in 1962. The patriarch, Hugo, is Canadian and works for a Brazilian company, and he is married to a woman with a wealthy Brazilian background. Hugo’s mental health has ups and downs, and eldest daughter Luiza bears the adult burden of caring for him in some of his darkest moments. Just as they decide to return to Canada for financial purposes, Luiza goes missing, setting off a chain of events that has her parents and siblings reconstructing who they are, and what they believe their family to be. (LITTLE, BROWN, Aug., 352 pp., $26.00)
Reviewed by:
John Jacobson