Carry Yourself Back to Me: A Novel - Softcover

Reed, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0547848021 ISBN 13: 9780547848020

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2012

Synopsis

"A beautifully written, thoroughly engaging novel. Deborah Reed's prose is lyrical, elegant, and vivid-she is a standout among new American novelists."-Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home Famed alt-country artist Annie Walsh has more than enough reason to sing her version of the blues, including a broken heart, a stalled career, and a troubled family. Annie seeks refuge from an upended love affair with her producer, Owen Pettybone, by sequestering herself at home with her old dog Detour, surrounded by a lush Florida tangelo grove. Soon, however, this quiet, small-town existence-far from recording studios, ardent fans, and affairs of the heart-comes crashing down around her. A violent murder connected to her brother Calder threatens to tear her family apart and forces Annie to shore up her loyalties and uproot profound disappointments from her distant past. Like a fine and forlorn love ballad, the gifted, conflicted Annie lulls the reader into a journey through love and loss that mines the mysterious, and, at times, paradoxical rhythms of the human heart. "Deborah Reed has written here a novel peopled with real, flesh-and-bone characters-men and women both as good and delightfully flawed as our best friends, our spouses, ourselves. And the icing on this cake is Reed's lucid, lovely prose."-Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, author of This Life She's Chosen and Swimming with Strangers Deborah Reed comes from a long line of storytellers and musicians and finds creative inspiration in the composition of alt-country, folk, and homespun goods. She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest, where she also writes suspense fiction under the name of Audrey Braun.

About this title

Review

"Carry Yourself Back to Me is a beautifully written, thoroughly engaging novel. Deborah Reed's prose is lyrical, elegant, and vivid—she is a standout among new American novelists." --Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home

"Deborah Reed has written here a novel peopled with real, flesh-and-bone characters—men and women both as good and delightfully flawed as our best friends, our spouses, ourselves. And the icing on this cake is Reed's lucid, lovely prose. Carry Yourself Back to Me is, simply, a pleasure to read." --Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, author of This Life She's Chosen and Swimming with Strangers

"Carry Yourself Back to Me marries gorgeous and wise prose with a can't-help-but-read-one- more-chapter plot. In it, Reed weaves a complex story of love and longing that's mysterious, intelligent, and full of heart. She had me from page one." --Cheryl Strayed, author of the novel Torch, and Wild, a memoir

"Deborah Reed writes beautifully about the interlocking puzzles of romantic and family love and the patterns that play out from generation to generation. While her protagonist is a master of the sad song, Reed achieves a symphonic effect—rich, intense, and surprisingly joyful." --Dawn Raffel, author of Carrying the Body and Further Adventures in the Restless Universe

"Deborah Reed takes a long look at love in this graceful novel. The kind of love that ravages and lays waste to her characters, and the kind of love that might finally save us all." -Bonnie Jo Campbell author of Once Upon a River and National Book award finalist for American Salvage

About the Author

DEBORAH REED is the author of the novels Olivay; Things We Set On Fire, which sold over 100,000 copies in its first six months; and Carry Yourself Back to Me, a Best Book of 2011 Amazon Editors' Pick. She has written two thrillers, A Small Fortune and Fortune's Deadly Descent, under her pen name, Audrey Braun. Her nonfiction has appeared in publications such as Poets & Writers and the Literarian. Deborah holds an MFA in creative writing (fiction) and is codirector of the Black Forest Writing Seminars at the University of Freiburg in Germany. She lives in Manzanita, Oregon.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0547848021
• ISBN 13: 9780547848020
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320