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WORK TITLE: The Futures
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://annapitoniak.com/
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/22/509375739/a-couple-faces-collapse-in-dark-futures
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2017005513
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017005513
HEADING: Pitoniak, Anna
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035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10681074
040 __ |a ICrlF |b eng |e rda |c ICrlF
100 1_ |a Pitoniak, Anna
370 __ |e Whistler (B.C.) |e New York (N.Y.) |2 naf
372 __ |a Romance fiction |2 lcgft
372 __ |a Publishers and publishing |2 lcsh
373 __ |a Random House (Firm) |2 naf
374 __ |a Editors |a Authors |2 lcsh
375 __ |a Women |2 lcsh
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a Pitoniak, Anna. The futures, 2017: |b title page (Anna Pitoniak) dust jacket flap (Anna Pitoniak; editor at Random House; Yale graduate, 2010; grew up in Whistler, B.C.; currently lives in New York City)
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Yale University, B.A., 2010.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Random House, New York, NY, editor. Formerly, Yale Daily News, New Haven, CT, editor;
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Writer and editor Anna Pitoniak grew up in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. She earned a degree in English from Yale University, where she was also editor at the Yale Daily News. She is now an editor at Random House and lives in New York City.
Pitoniak’s debut novel of love and betrayal, The Futures, is set during the 2008 financial crisis. Evan and Julia Peck are a young power couple determined to live a life of privilege in the Big Apple. Evan is a rural Canadian boy who attended Yale on a hockey scholarship. He gets a stress-filled job in finance at a prestigious hedge fund and works on a high-stakes deal for his morally questionable boss. Julia is a high society Boston prep school grad from a rich family who works at an unsatisfying job with a nonprofit and has no direction in life. As Evan’s company becomes more secretive, he begins to realize that the financial markets are in trouble. Abruptly, he is out of a job. His relationship with Julia is strained, and they feel like they are only sharing an apartment. Lonely and disappointed, Julia decides to rekindle her friendship with a journalist from her past who can offer her the high style life she always expected.
Having lived through the financial crisis as a college student, Pitoniak set her book during that time to see how characters moved through that historical era and to explore what it would be like for a young couple to navigate the destabilizing period between college and adulthood. Pitoniak offers a coming-of-age story of a young people who don’t have all the answers as they learn to survive in a strange and difficult time. She lets the characters of Julia and Evan behave like real people, complete with anxieties, dreams, and self-sabotaging behavior. Writing in Kirkus Reviews, a contributor commented: “Pitoniak expertly captures both the excitement and the oppressive darkness of being young and at sea in New York City, the unsettlingly thin line between freedom and free fall.”
A Publishers Weekly reviewer said that Pitoniak navigates through themes of love, youth, college, and city life, adding: “Pitoniak eschews cliché for nuanced characterization and sharply observed detail.” Joanna Burkhardt remarked in Library Journal that Pitoniak “captures the insecurities of the first days of independent adulthood.” According to Annie Bostrom in Booklist, Pitoniak’s “character driven, interior-focused novel captures the knowable angst of the unknowable possibilities of modern young adulthood.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2016, Annie Bostrom, review of The Futures, p. 28.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2016, review of The Futures.
Library Journal, October 1, 2016, Joanna Burkhardt, review of The Futures, p. 74.
Publishers Weekly, September 26, 2016, review of The Futures, p. 62.
ONLINE
Anna Pitoniak Website, http://annapitoniak.com (July 1, 2017), author profile.*
Anna Pitoniak is an editor at Random House. She graduated from Yale in 2010, where she majored in English and was an editor at the Yale Daily News. She grew up in Whistler, British Columbia, and now lives in New York City.
Anne Pitoniak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anne Pitoniak
Born March 30, 1922
Westfield, Massachusetts, US
Died April 22, 2007 (aged 85)
Manhattan, New York, US
Anne Pitoniak (March 30, 1922 – April 22, 2007) was an American actress. She was nominated twice for Broadway's Tony Award: as Best Actress (Play) in 1983, for 'night, Mother, and as Best Actress (Featured Role - Play) in 1994, for a revival of William Inge's Picnic.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
1.2 Career
1.3 Death
2 References
3 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Pitoniak was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Sophie (née Porubovic) and John Pitoniak.[1] She was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She spent two years as a civilian actress immediately after World War II, touring Japan, the Philippines and Korea for the Army's Special Services division. She met her future husband, Jerome Milord, then a soldier, when they were both in a U.S.O. show in Japan.[2]
Career[edit]
In 'night, Mother she played a woman who desperately tries to keep her daughter from killing herself. The play had its premiere at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then moved to Broadway. Both Pitoniak and co-star Kathy Bates received Best Actress Tony Award nominations for their work. In 1994, Pitoniak received a second Tony nomination for her performance as Helen Potts in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Picnic. She also appeared on Broadway in Agnes of God, The Octette Bridge Club, Amy's View, Uncle Vanya, Dance of Death, and Imaginary Friends.
Pitoniak performed frequently at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, in such plays as Norman's Getting Out, D. L. Coburn's The Gin Game, and Jane Martin's Middle Aged White Guys. She also worked steadily in film and television, including the 1985 film version of Agnes of God, where she appeared as the mother of Jane Fonda's character.
In 1987, Pitoniak played the role of Mary, in the 1987 Cheers episode "Pudd'n Head Boyd" (Season 6, Episode 9). In 1988 she played Cornelia in The Wizard of Loneliness. In 2001, she played the role of Mrs. Berry in the Law and Order: SVU episode "Redemption" (Season 3, Episode 6).[3]
Death[edit]
Pitoniak died from cancer at her home in Manhattan, New York City, New York at age 85.[4]
OBITUARIES
Anne Pitoniak, 85, Actress Who Played Strong Older Women, Dies
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSONAPRIL 26, 2007
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Anne Pitoniak, who began her stage career in late middle age, but received a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut, in “ ’night, Mother,” and had an enduring career playing strong-willed older women, died on Sunday at home in Manhattan. She was 85.
The cause was complications of cancer, said her son, Christian Milord.
Other than a few roles in summer stock theater right out of college, Ms. Pitoniak spent most of her acting life in television and radio commercials. But in 1975, when she was in her mid-50s, her marriage having ended in divorce and her two children grown, she decided to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Two years later she became a resident actor at the Actors Theater of Louisville in Kentucky, where her first role was in Marsha Norman’s first play, “Getting Out.”
Ms. Pitoniak quickly developed a following at the Actors Theater, the host theater of the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Among the plays she appeared in were John Pielmeier’s “Agnes of God” and Jane Martin’s “Talking With,” which was moved to Off Broadway by the Manhattan Theater Club.
“ ’night, Mother” was the third of Ms. Norman’s plays in which Ms. Pitoniak starred. She portrayed a fiercely desperate mother whose daughter, played by Kathy Bates, suddenly announces suicidal intentions, a performance described as “harrowing” by Frank Rich in The New York Times. The play went to the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., then to Broadway, where it opened in 1983.
Photo
Kathy Bates, left, and Anne Pitoniak in "'night, Mother" in 1983. Credit Brownie Harris
Ms. Pitoniak acted in six more plays on Broadway, including a 1994 revival of William Inge’s “Picnic,” for which she received her second Tony nomination, and David Hare’s “Amy’s View” in 1999. She also appeared in movies and on television shows like “Third Watch” and “Law & Order: SVU.”
Born in Westfield, Mass., Ms. Pitoniak graduated from what is now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She joined the U.S.O. soon after and met her husband, Jerome Milord, then a soldier, when they were both in a U.S.O. show in Japan. They divorced in 1968.
In addition to her son, Christian, Ms. Pitoniak’s survivors include a daughter, Susan; a grandson; and two sisters and a brother.
In 2000 Ms. Pitoniak told TheaterMania.com: “I have never put ‘actress’ on any form of identification. I’m not trying to be coy, but I always felt that it would have been stretching things a bit to identify myself that way.”
That changed, she said, after “Amy’s View,” in which she appeared at age 77. “For the first time,” she said, “I felt that, if I had to get a passport today, I’d put it down. I’d say that I am an actress.”
OBITUARIES
Anne Pitoniak, Original Star of 'night, Mother, Is Dead at 85
BY ROBERT SIMONSON
APR 26, 2007
Anne Pitoniak, the self-effacing actress who received a Tony Award nomination for her powerful potrayal of a stunned and frightened woman in Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother, died April 22 at her home in Manhattan. She was 85.
Anne Pitoniak in 'night, Mother.
Anne Pitoniak in 'night, Mother. Photo by Richard Feldman
Ms. Pitoniak created the title role in 'night, Mother, a confused but determined mother who tries to talk her grown daughter out of her plans to kill herself that evening. Kathy Bates played the saddened young woman. The play was hailed for its biting, unrelenting realism and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1983.
It was the third Norman play Ms. Pitoniak had appeared in. The first was Getting Out at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. It was Norman's first play and one of the first professional roles for Ms. Pitoniak, who had spent her life up until then as a wife and mother, before deciding in late middle age to take acting classes from Ernie Martin at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. She was 61 when she made her Broadway debut in 'night, Mother.
Following 'night, Mother, she appeared in the Broadway play The Octette Bridge Club along with Elizabeth Franz and Nancy Marchand. It didn't last long, but Ms. Pitoniak collected a Drama Desk Award nomination.
Like Getting Out, The Octette Bridge Club began at the Actors' Theatre of Louisville, where Ms. Pitoniak spent five years. Other credits there included John Pielmeier's Agnes of God and Jane Martin's Talking With, which moved to Off-Broadway, winning the actress a Theatre World Award. Also in Louisville, she played a grandmotherly, radically conservative pro-lifer in Martin's Keely and Du. She won an Obie Award for her work as a stylish Mrs. Higgins in a 1991 Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Pygmalion.
She was back on Broadway in 1994 in a revival of William Inge's Picnic, collecting a second Tony nomination. She played Helen Potts, who is tied down by her bedridden mother. "Drudgery and hopelessness are the character's lot," wrote David Richards in the New York Times. "So what does Ms. Pitoniak do? She accentuates the spring in her aged step, the twinkle in her milky eye and the joy in a heart that refuses to give up. It's a deft, endearing portrayal of what is usually a marginal character." In the last decade of her career, Ms. Pitoniak's roles often demanded little more of her than looking old and ravaged. Nonetheless, she attacked them with conviction. She played Judi Dench's feeble mother in Amy's View. She was a gnarled old woman in the 2001 revival of Strindberg's Dance of Death starring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. And she played a silent, wild-eyed and wild-haired resident of a rest home in Horton Foote's The Last of the Thorntons. In each part, she exhibited a lack of vanity unusual in her profession.
She was born in Westfield, MA, on March 30, 1922. Ms. Pitoniak graduated from what is now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She joined the U.S.O. soon after, according to the New York Times, performing in shows overseas. There she met her husband, Jerome Milord, a soldier. The marriage lasted until 1968 and produced a son, Christian, and a daughter, Susan.
Pitoniak, Anna: THE FUTURES
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Pitoniak, Anna THE FUTURES Lee Boudreaux/Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $26.00 1, 17 ISBN: 978-0-316-35417-2
Once young and in love and destined for greatness, a pair of recent college grads find themselves dangerously unraveling at the dawn of the 2008
financial crisis in Pitoniak's energetic debut.Julia Edwards and Evan Peck fall in love freshman year at Yale. He's a small-town boy from rural
Canada at Yale on a hockey scholarship; she's a gorgeous prep-school grad from suburban Boston at Yale because that's where people like her are
destined to be. After four (mostly) blissful years of undergrad, the pair moves to New York City, sharing an apartment on the Upper East Side.
But almost immediately, the relationship begins to show cracks. Evan is working round the clock as a first-year associate at an ultraprestigious
hedge fund; Julia's floundering, the only one of her friends to graduate wholly without a path. Eventually, through family connections, she gets an
assistant position at an arts nonprofit, the main advantage of which is that it is better than nothing. As the markets continue to tank, Julia and Evan
drift further and further apart, each of them consumed by a different, sinister game. Evan is tapped to work on a top-secret deal that may not be
exactly what it seems, while Julia reconnects with a rakish college pal who seems to offer her access to the life she'd always imagined. Though
their paths have catastrophically diverged, both Julia and Evan are facing versions of the same all-too-recognizable post-collegiate crisis: what
happens when you aren't the person you thought you were? Pitoniak expertly captures both the excitement and the oppressive darkness of being
young and at sea in New York City, the unsettlingly thin line between freedom and free fall. And while the novel isn't always subtle in its
revelations, it's deeply empathetic--and always engaging. A bittersweet coming-of-age drama and a portrait of an era.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Pitoniak, Anna: THE FUTURES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466329198&it=r&asid=c383e9e303e4baaadcd5cc065bc2aea6. Accessed 12 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466329198
---
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Anna Pitoniak: THE FUTURES
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Anna Pitoniak THE FUTURES Lee Boudreaux/Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) 26.00 ISBN: 978-0-316-35417-2
Once young and in love and destined for greatness, a pair of recent college grads find themselves dangerously unraveling at the dawn of the 2008
financial crisis in Pitoniak’s energetic debut.Julia Edwards and Evan Peck fall in love freshman year at Yale. He’s a small-town
boy from rural Canada at Yale on a hockey scholarship; she’s a gorgeous prep-school grad from suburban Boston at Yale because
that’s where people like her are destined to be. After four (mostly) blissful years of undergrad, the pair moves to New York City, sharing
an apartment on the Upper East Side. But almost immediately, the relationship begins to show cracks. Evan is working round the clock as a firstyear
associate at an ultraprestigious hedge fund; Julia’s floundering, the only one of her friends to graduate wholly without a path.
Eventually, through family connections, she gets an assistant position at an arts nonprofit, the main advantage of which is that it is better than
nothing. As the markets continue to tank, Julia and Evan drift further and further apart, each of them consumed by a different, sinister game. Evan
is tapped to work on a top-secret deal that may not be exactly what it seems, while Julia reconnects with a rakish college pal who seems to offer
her access to the life she’d always imagined. Though their paths have catastrophically diverged, both Julia and Evan are facing versions
of the same all-too-recognizable post-collegiate crisis: what happens when you aren’t the person you thought you were? Pitoniak
expertly captures both the excitement and the oppressive darkness of being young and at sea in New York City, the unsettlingly thin line between
freedom and free fall. And while the novel isn’t always subtle in its revelations, it’s deeply empathetic—and always
engaging. A bittersweet coming-of-age drama and a portrait of an era.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Anna Pitoniak: THE FUTURES." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466551448&it=r&asid=0650d0e5bbd4a947c66466c1a5dda03b. Accessed 12 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466551448
---
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Spotlight on first novels
Booklist.
113.4 (Oct. 15, 2016): p28.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* The Bear and the Nightingale. By Katherine Arden. Jan. 2017.336p. Del Rey, $27 (97811018859321.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Gracefully threaded with Russian fairy tales and a tactile sense of place, Arden's debut tells the story of Vasya, daughter of a supposed witch, in
the northern reaches of medieval Russia. As a child, Vasya's conversations with wood sprites and household spirits were an odd, but tolerable
feature, but when her father marries deeply pious, troubled Anna, Vasya learns to keep her otherworldly friends a secret. They don't stay secret for
long, however: a fanatical priest quickly catches on, and he becomes obsessed with Vasya's salvation, while Anna roils with anger over her
stepdaughters brazen disregard for propriety. Most treacherous of all, two supernatural beings, Morozko and Medved, see powerful opportunities
in Vasya's gifts. And while Vasya tries to ward off Medved's nefarious grasp on her village, political rumblings from Moscow threaten their status
quo, and the villagers become wary of Vasya's inexplicable talents and boldness. In a lush narrative with the cadence of a fairy tale, Arden weaves
an immersive, earthy story of folk magic, faith, and hubris, peopled with vivid, dynamic characters, particularly clever, brave Vasya, who
outsmarts men and demons alike to save her family. This beautifully written, auspicious first novel is utterly bewitching.--Sarah Hunter
YA: With a teen heroine and fairy-tale atmosphere, this could have easily been published as YA. Teen fans of literary fairy tales will be
enchanted. SH.
Bone & Bread. By Saleema Nawaz. Nov. 2016.456p. Anansi, paper, $16.95 (9781770890091).
With an elegance and fluidity of prose rare in first novels, Canadian writer Nawaz presents a masterful examination of the ties that bind people
together and the quiet endurance required for sustaining those bonds through the countless travails of life and death. Beena remains bereaved, but
she is attempting to preserve the burgeoning relationships that have allowed her to cope with the death of her sister, Sadhana. In the wake of this
tragedy, Beena reflects on their childhood together after the death of their parents, remembering the tumultuous nature of their sisterhood and the
many struggles that led to their final fight. Mingled grief and guilt lead Beena to return to her sister's Montreal apartment to investigate what
exactly went on during Sadhana's last days and uncover the truth behind her death. Poignant, engrossing, and tender, Nawaz's work explores the
lifelong attempt to protect those we love and how we learn to rally for those dear to us.--Caitlin Brown
The Butcher's Hook. By Janet Ellis. Jan. 2017. 368p. Pegasus, $24.95 (9781681773117).
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In this macabre love story, Anne Jaccob is a young woman from a wealthy family in Georgian London. Though she lives a comfortable life, she
receives no love from her cold father, and her mother has been wasting away for years. Not only that, but Anne has been promised to an oily, selfabsorbed
man. Longing for love and an escape from her home, Anne is instantly smitten by the butcher's boy, Fub, when he makes a delivery to
the home. She embarks on a whirlwind love affair, which she must keep secret, and there are no lengths that she won't go to in order to protect it,
including cold-blooded murder. Still, readers won't suspect the story's dark turn, which flips the usual tropes on their heads and makes for a
pleasantly surprising read. Ellis' debut is at times awkwardly paced, and characters are generally unlikable and melodramatic. Fans of the setting,
with plenty of sex and violence thrown in, will enjoy the novelty of this book that reads like a Tim Burton film.--Emily Brock
The Dispossessed. By Szilard Borbely. Nov. 2016. 304p. illus. HarperPerennial, paper, $15.99 (9780062364081).
Well-known poet Borbely uses his lyrical talent to illuminate the suffering and deep-seated poverty in a tiny Hungarian village in the 1960s, a
time when politics and communism in the region changed difficult lives to impossible. The unnamed child narrator, whose drunken father is of
Jewish descent and whose family is officially Greek Catholic (another unpopular religion in a Calvinist village), describes his life as a fearful
outcast who, with his sister, does most of the chores and spends inordinate amounts of time keeping his mother from jumping into the well. The
narrator doesn't shy away from the peasants' coarse humor, sexual aberrations, and cruelty to animals, nor the filth and excrement that surround
them and serve as metaphors for their lives. While the short declarative sentences may seem somewhat repetitious, every page is laden with
significance, and though some readers may not enjoy the education Borbely gives them, most will find much to ponder in this moving literary
novel that compares favorably to both Elie Wiesel's Night (1960) and Philip Hensher's Scenes from Early Life (2013) for their disturbingly clear
descriptions and autobiographical nature. Borbely died in 2014. --Jen Baker
Fever Dream. By Samanta Schweblin. Tr. by Megan McDowell. Jan. 2017. 192p. Riverhead, $25 (9780399184598).
Schweblin's first novel tells a frenetic, unnerving tale. A young mother, Amanda, is afflicted by a sudden illness and accepts that death is
imminent. As she waits in her hospital bed, she hears the hovering voice of a young boy, David, who guides her as she recounts the events leading
to her current dire situation. After arriving at a rural vacation home with her daughter, Nina, Amanda strikes up a friendship with their alluring
neighbor, Carla, a local who is revealed to be David's mother. Carla shares with Amanda an unusual story about her son and her efforts to save
him after he was poisoned. Amanda, at first dubious, becomes increasingly troubled by both mother and son and makes plans to cut their vacation
short and return home. But things go awry when Amanda decides to bid Carla farewell. Schweblin's sparse narrative, both familiar and
mysterious, quickly grows in intensity as the hazy whispers of self-doubt and death itself descend. A thought-provoking story that provides ample
opportunity for readers to grapple with its unanswered questions. --Leah Strauss
First Light. By Bill Rancic. Nov. 2016. 320p. Putnam, $26 (9781101982273).
Entrepreneur and reality-TV star Rancic, author of the best-selling You're Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life (2004), presents a
captivating and harrowing debut novel. After doing damage control for a recent oil spill, the Petrol team members are more than ready to leave
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the darkness of Barrow, Alaska. Kerry Egan and Daniel Albrecht are especially excited to return to Chicago to plan their wedding and celebrate
the holidays. But during their flight home, something goes terribly wrong. Stranded in the Yukon Territory after their plane crashes during a
storm, Kerry, Daniel, and other survivors must endure the unforgiving conditions of the Canadian wilderness. Kerry and Phil Velez, another
Petrol employee, are gravely injured during the crash. As the only one with survival experience, Daniel is forced to make difficult decisions to
save the woman he loves and ensure that everyone has a chance of being rescued. First Light is, at its core, a story of love and family, told within
an engrossing page-turner about endurance and hope.--Patricia Smith
The Futures. By Anna Pitoniak. Jan. 2017.320p. Little, Brown/Lee Boudreaux, $26 (9780316354172); e-book, $12.99 (9780316354189).
Recent college grads Julia and Evan, who alternate chapters narrating Pitoniak's debut, have just traded New Haven for New York. Without any
distinct post-college plans, Julia thinks moving in with Evan is as good as anything else. Evan, on the other hand, has landed a coveted spot at a
highly respected hedge fund, one of the few, he'll soon learn, that's safe in the about-to-happen 2008 market crash. Quickly, Evan is working
around the clock, attracting the attention of a boss whose elusive praise is wildly sought-after by his competitive colleagues. Julia, working "only"
normal hours, is lonely and disappointed, if not surprised, by how quickly playing house has become anything but fun. When Evan gets involved
in a deal that he suspects, then knows, isn't above-board, and Julia seeks fun and comfort elsewhere, Pitoniak keeps the pace moving at a steady
clip. Through Julia, preppy, privileged, depressive, and Evan, a Canadian country boy running from his roots, Pitoniak's well plotted, characterdriven,
interior-focused novel captures the knowable angst of the unknowable possibilities of modern young adulthood.--Annie Bostrom
YA/M: Julia and Evan an barely older than the teenagers who might like a peek at the abruptly adult lives they lead after college. AB.
Hindsight. By Mindy Tarquini. Nov. 2016. 320p. SparkPress, paper, $16.95 (9781943006014); e-book, $9.95 (9781943006021).
Eugenia knows where she has been all too well; she is not sure where she is going to end up. Thirty-three years old and living with her mother in
South Philly, Eugenia has the unique ability to remember all of her past lives, but she is only interested in what her as-yet-unknown future holds.
She thinks her current life is too easy, and she is craving more, when she meets Friedrich, a man who shares her strange talent, as his
concentration-camp tattoo from a past life proves. The two form an unlikely friendship that always dances around more, and suddenly Eugenia's
life is exciting. Instead of wishing for something better in her next life, she is engaged in the present, able to tackle things she never thought
possible and in sight of the life she has always wanted, this time around. Tarquini charms her audience with heady wit and laugh-out-loud humor,
especially where Eugenia's hilarious Italian American family is concerned. This is a fast-reading, enjoyable journey through past and present that
many readers will enjoy.--Carissa Chesanek
* History of Wolves. By Emily Fridlund. Jan. 2017. 288p. Atlantic Monthly, $25 (97808021258731.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Fraught with foreboding, Fridlund's first novel is the story of 14-year-old Linda, who lives with her erstwhile cult-member parents in a cabin in
the northern Minnesota woods. When new neighbors, the Gardners, move into their summer cottage across the lake, Linda becomes babysitter for
their five-year-old son and an increasingly large presence in their lives--and they in hers. In the meantime, her new history teacher, Mr. Grierson,
has been found to possess child pornography and is fired, but not before he has an alleged affair with one of Linda's classmates, the beautiful Lily
with whom Linda is fascinated. The novel moves backward and forward in time to good effect, showing us the enigmatic adult Linda will
become. The isolated setting reinforces a theme of loneliness that pervades the book and lends it an often bleak, even desolate, air that reinforces
the uncertain, nagging knowledge that something is wrong with the Gardners. The writing is beautiful throughout ("the sun broke over the
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treetops, turning every surface into a flat knife of light"; a man is stubborn "like a stain") and is a triumph of tone and attitude. Lovers of
character-driven literary fiction will embrace this one.--Michael Cart
YA/M: Older teens who enjoy literary fiction will he engaged and intrigued by this novel's richly realized themes of loneliness and the urgent
desire to belong. MC.
* I Liked My Life. By Abby Fabiaschi. Jan. 2017.272p. St. Martin's, $25.99 (9781250084873).
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Maddy's husband, Brady, and their teenage daughter, Eve, have been struggling after Maddy's suicide. Wanting to help her shattered family move
on without her, Maddy hovers from the beyond, seeking the right woman to take her place. She finds the perfect person to help Brady and Eve
move past their loss in Rory, an elementary teacher, and she plants thoughts in their heads to bring Rory and her family together. But Rory has
experienced her own loss and may be just as much in need of learning to live again as Brady and Eve are. Fabiaschi excels at depicting the
confusion Eve and Brady experience as they desperately try to reconcile their Maddy with the one who committed suicide. Excerpts from
Maddy's journal and multiple narrators add to the complexity of Maddy's character as well as the layers of strained relationship history between
Brady and Eve. Readers will be enveloped by the emotional impact of Fabiaschi's writing. Warm and hopeful, this marvelous debut stands next to
novels from Catherine McKenzie and Carolyn Parkhurst in taking the reader on the emotional rides that define marriage and family.--Tracy
Babiasz
* Lincoln in the Bardo. By George Saunders. Jan. 2017.368p. Random, $28 (9780812995343).
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Even though Saunders (Tenth of December, 2013), the much-heralded author of distinctively inventive short stories, anchors his first novel to a
historical moment--the death of President Abraham Lincoln's young son, Willie, in February 1862--this is most emphatically not a conventional
work of historical fiction. The surreal action takes place in a cemetery, and most of the expressive, hectic characters are dead, caught in the bardo,
the mysterious transitional state following death and preceding rebirth, heaven, or hell. Their vivid narration resembles a play, or a prose variation
on Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology (1915), as they tell their stories, which range from the gleefully ribald to the tragic in tales
embodying the dire conflicts underlying the then-raging Civil War. On pages laddered with brilliantly "curated" quotes from books and historical
documents (most actual, some concocted), Saunders cannily sets the stage for Lincoln's true-life, late-night visits to the crypt, where he cradles
his son's body--scenes of epic sorrow turned grotesque by the morphing spirits' frantic reactions. Saunders creates a provocative dissonance
between his exceptionally compassionate insights into the human condition and Lincoln's personal and presidential crises and this macabre
carnival of the dead, a wild and wily improvisation on the bardo that mirrors, by turns, the ambience of Hieronymus Bosch and Tim Burton. A
boldly imagined, exquisitely sensitive, sharply funny, and utterly unnerving historical and metaphysical drama.--Donna Seaman
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HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The buzz is loud and will continue to be so when literary star Saunders goes on a national author tour
supported by an all-platform media blitz.
* Marlena. By Julie Buntin. Apr. 2017. 288p. Holt, $26 (9781627797641).
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In Buntin's vivid debut, Cath, now a New York City public librarian in her thirties, tells the story of the friendship that changed her forever.
Fifteen and stinging from her parents' recent divorce, Cath has already decided that she'll be different in freezing, rugged Silver Lake, Michigan,
from the nerdy, do-gooder "Cathy" she was back in Pontiac. On cue, wild, beautiful, unpredictable Marlena, her new neighbor, appears as Cath,
her mother, and brother pull up to the tiny home that's apparently theirs. Cath is suddenly and completely drawn to Marlena: ethereal though
chemically fueled, brilliant but reckless, so comforting when she's not angry or, worse, too honest. An early revelation that Marlena will soon die
increases the suspense. Cath, an aggressively truant smoker in her new identity, knows that Marlenas dad is up to no good in his rail car deep in
the woods, that he's cooking a better version of the meth Marlena's boyfriend makes and sells, and Marlena's constant pill-popping isn't nothing,
but this friendship and the life that comes with it are closer to belonging than Cath has ever felt. Though Cath tells her story in flashbacks,
Buntin's prose is emotional and immediate, and the interior lives she draws of young women and obsessive best friends are Ferrante-esque.--
Annie Bostrom
YA/M: This novel is full of first times and difficult things, and the teens who are ready for them will recognize Cath and Marlena. AB.
Our Little Secret. By Jenna Ellis. Oct. 2016.416p. IPG/Pan Macmillan, paper, $14.95 (9781447266785).
Scanning classified ads while whiling away the minutes at her dead-end job, wrangling kids at the Manchester FunPlex Dome, Sophie Henshaw
is intrigued by a listing for an "articulate, well-mannered English girl" to work for a family in upstate New York. At 22, her life isn't terrible, and
she and her longtime boyfriend have an amazing sex life--but not much else. She's ready to shake things up. Quickly, after interviewing for the
job on video, she's flown business class to New York, and everything only gets more luxurious from there. Edward and Marnie Parker's seemingly
endless, hyperprivate house is teched-up and glitzed-out, and, of course, they're both interesting--and superhot. But where are those kids Sophie
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thought she was going to nanny? And is it just her, or is there a lot of sexual tension in here? Figuring out that something's up with the Parkers,
and that Sophie's hire wasn't exactly what it seemed, isn't rocket science, but plot twists take a limo-length backseat to erotica here. And first-time
novelist Ellis cleverly leaves the ending open for a sequel.--Annie Bostrom
* The Patriots. By Sana Krasikov. Jan. 2017. 560p. Spiegel & Grau, $28 (9780385524414).
Krasikov's short story collection, One More Year (2008), garnered a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 award and the Sami Rohr Prize for
Jewish Literature. Now her fluency in the complex interactions between Russia and America shapes her first novel, an involving, suspenseful, and
astute cross-cultural saga. Idealistic and impetuous Brooklynite Florence Fein lands a job with the Soviet Trade Mission. She falls for a worldly
Russian engineer, precipitating her reckless 1934 voyage to the Soviet Union, where her naivete and brashness both endanger and empower her as
she navigates many-pronged tyranny, anti-Semitism, and vicious corruption. With scintillating language and transporting narrative command,
Krasikov interlayers Florence's harrowing adventures with those of her son, Julian--who endured Soviet orphanages while she suffered in a
Siberian labor camp and is currently embroiled in the race to drill for Arctic oil--and his floundering son, Lenny. As each generation struggles to
find a home and an identity in both Russia and the U.S., Krasikov dramatizes hidden, shameful facets of history in which expat American Jews
were betrayed by both countries. In a galvanizing tale of flawed and courageous protagonists, erotic and political passion, and harrowing
struggles for survival, Krasikov masterfully and devastatingly exposes the "whole dark clockwork" of totalitarianism and asks what it means to be
a hero, a patriot, a human being.--Donna Seaman
Pull Me Under. By Kelly Luce. Nov. 2016.272p. Farrar, $26 (9780374238582).
Luce follows her hit story collection, Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail (2013), with a debut novel about secret lives and
selfhood. The daughter of a respected Japanese classical-music composer and an American woman who committed suicide, Rio Silvestri, a nurse,
now lives in Boulder with her loving husband, teenage daughter, and a passion for long-distance running. When she receives a package
containing artifacts and the news that her father has died, Rio faces the dark past she has spent her life running from: as a teenager living in Japan,
she murdered a school bully and was sent to an institution for disturbed youth. Having hidden her shameful history from her family, Rio now
travels alone to her father's funeral in Japan to face all that she left behind. Striking an unlikely friendship with her high-school English teacher,
Rio explores ancient temples and forgotten memories on a journey to discover courage and renewed affection for those she loves. Understated yet
emotionally gripping, Luce's novel is an intimate portrayal of one woman's search for identity.--Jonathan Fullmer
* The Standard Grand. By Jay Baron Nicorvo. Apr. 2017.368p. St. Martin's, $26.99 (9781250108944); e-book, $12.99 (9781250108951).
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Milt Wright, a widowed Vietnam vet, operates the Standard Grand, a once-thriving, luxurious Catskills resort, now a run-down sanctuary for
homeless veterans suffering from PTSD. Dying from cancer, Milt is trying to keep the Grand afloat by maxing out his credit and finding a worthy
successor. Enter Bellum Smith, gone AWOL just before her third deployment to Iraq and running from her abusive, ne'er-do-well husband. Milt
takes her in, the only female at the Grand, and believes she may be the answer to his problems. Evangelina Canek represents a multinational
corporation with designs on the land and hopes to save her job by cheaply acquiring the property and turning a quick profit, since the Grand is
sitting on a massive shale formation. With sentences that flow like water down a mountain, Nicorvo's muscular and energetic prose will stun
readers with its poignancy, while providing a punch to the solar plexus. Whip-smart dialogue and keen emotional insight bring a ragtag, damaged,
but lovable cast of characters to life. Ultimately, it is Nicorvo's depiction of the deep psychological scars soldiers bring home that will keep this
exceptional first novel in the hearts and minds of readers. Alongside Billy Lynn's Long, Halftime Walk (2012) and Yellow Birds (2012), The
Standard Grand is an important and deeply human contribution to the national conversation.--Bill Kelly
* The Strays. By Emily Bitto. Jan. 2017.256p. Twelve, $26 (9781455537723).
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A note from an old friend sparks Lily's memory, and suddenly it's the 1930s again in Melbourne. Lily is nine, first meeting Eva, who will become
her best friend. Eva's well-known artist father, Evan, is always busy painting, Lily learns, while Eva's beautiful mother, Helena, is always busy ...
being glamorous. Lily, fast becoming a witness to all this, is fascinated by the family's bohemian existence, their house always filled with other
artists, some of whom actually live there in a kind of chaotic, de facto artist colony calling itself the Melbourne Modern Art Group. With the
adults either occupied or careless, Eva and her two sisters are left on their own--strays, their mother calls them, including Lily in their number, to
Lily's delight. But what seems like a halcyon time changes suddenly when something nearly unimaginable happens, and Lily is left alone and
friendless. Soon thereafter the novel flashes forward some 30 years as past and present come together in a melancholy denouement. Winner of
Australia's Stella Prize, Bitto's novel is a haunting evocation of life-changing friendship. Stylishly written (an elegant woman is "pale and long
and light, like a taper"), The Strays is a marvel of setting and characterization, re-creating a time of artistic revolution and personal revelation.
Memorable and moving, this is a novel not to be missed.--Michael Cart
The Waiting Room. By Leah Kaminsky. Nov. 2016.304p. HarperPerennial, paper, $15.99 (9780062490476).
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Australian physician and writer Kaminisky's first novel centers on Dina, who finds her everyday life as a doctor in Haifa, Israel, intertwined with
both her family's past and collective Jewish history. Raised in Australia by Holocaust-survivor parents, she reaches Israel as an adult and
experiences an immediate sense of belonging. However, even as she meets and marries Eitan, has a child, and settles down, she feels an inner tugof-war
as she longs to return to Melbourne, away from the relentless sense of impending disaster. Kaminsky uses the events of one day as this
busy mother and doctor runs from home to school to office and deals with errands to dramatize what it means to live under constant threat. But
she also reminds us that life is the same everywhere, even in places of high-wire stress, as we face such realities as a strained marriage and the
struggle to make time to be with one's child. Kaminsky brings Dina into sharp focus, while her ghostly mother serves as a strong secondary
character, in order to vividly personalize stark news reports.--Shoba Viswanathan
* A Word for Love. By Emily Robbins. Jan. 2017. 304p. Riverhead, $27 (9781594633584).
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Bea has seen firsthand that real life can mirror fiction. An American student of Arabic in an unnamed Middle Eastern country that is on the verge
of revolution, Bea is on a mission to get her hands on the world-famous "astonishing text," a legendary story of star-crossed lovers Qais and Leila
and the good Samaritan who kept their ill-fated adventures alive. In her host family's small home, however, Bea is witness to two life-changing
events that unfold along parallel tracks: an enduring, illicit romance between Nisrine, the Indonesian housemaid, and Adel, a young policeman
stationed next door; and the host family's patriarch's increasing involvement in political dissent, actions that might carry serious consequences.
The themes here seem ripe for melodrama, but Robbins' promising debut steers clear of cloying sentimentality even if at times the similarities
between Bea and the good Samaritan of lore feel forced. Still, Bea is a winning choice as a narrator, lending the story vulnerability and
authenticity, especially because she is such an empathetic, and often helpless, spectator. With an impressive economy of words, Robbins,
formerly a Fulbright Fellow in Syria, tells a story that proves that themes of love, loss, and freedom truly can transcend borders and time.--
Poornima Apte
YA/M: Intelligent and kind Bea might intrigue YAs, who will be curious to learn more about her path as a young study-abroad student. PA.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
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"Spotlight on first novels." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2016, p. 28+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771279&it=r&asid=7db3930eadd5c8069af840369ddaacba. Accessed 12 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468771279
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Pitoniak, Anna. The Futures
Joanna Burkhardt
Library Journal.
141.16 (Oct. 1, 2016): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Pitoniak, Anna. The Futures. Lee Boudreaux: Little Brown. Jan. 2017. 320p. ISBN 9780316354172. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780316354189. F
Julia, who comes from a wealthy family, has an art degree and no vision for her life beyond college. Evan is a Canadian hockey player from a
working-class family. He, however, has a plan. His degree in finance lands him a job at a prestigious hedge fund in New York City. After meeting
at Yale, Evan and Julia move to New York together, each struggling to establish a career. As they become immersed in their own interests, they
grow apart. When the financial world crumbles, an ironic twist causes Evan to lose his job and destroys his faltering relationship with Julia.
VERDICT This debut coming-of-age novel captures the insecurities of the first days of independent adulthood and the unintended consequences
in the struggle for maturity. Readers of general fiction will enjoy this story. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 7/11/16.]--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ.
of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Burkhardt, Joanna. "Pitoniak, Anna. The Futures." Library Journal, 1 Oct. 2016, p. 74. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464982222&it=r&asid=f903466ef7e3fd273199c6ce9e0001e8. Accessed 12 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464982222
---
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The Futures
Publishers Weekly.
263.39 (Sept. 26, 2016): p62.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Futures
Anna Pitoniak. LB/Boudreaux, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-0-316-35417-2
Set amid the 2008 financial collapse, Pitoniak's assured debut explores the cost of realizing--and misinterpreting--one's dreams. Evan Peck, the
son of grocery-store owners in remote British Columbia, needs student loans and a hockey scholarship to afford the Ivy League, while Julia
Edwards hails from Northeastern privilege. Meeting at Yale, they fall promptly in love despite their different upbringings. Upon graduation, Evan
lands a plum job at a Manhattan hedge fund fighting to survive the deepening Wall Street meltdown, as Julia, unsure of her calling, settles for a
low-level job at small nonprofit. Soon, the couple seems to share little more than their cramped apartment. An exhausted Evan worries when the
deal he's working on turns out to have a shady underside; Julia finds in a charismatic journalist the sense of promise that neither work nor Evan
gives her. As the distance between them leads to betrayal, they must face the ways they have sabotaged each other and themselves. Navigating
terrain--love and youth, college and city life---that's often oversimplified, Pitoniak eschews cliche for nuanced characterization and sharply
observed detail. Evan and Julia ring true as 20-somethings, but Pitoniak's novel also speaks to anyone who has searched among possible futures
for the way back to what Julia calls "the person I had been all along." (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Futures." Publishers Weekly, 26 Sept. 2016, p. 62+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA465558189&it=r&asid=e5cd69fdb6c8aa0bf20ad93c0369f414. Accessed 12 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A465558189