A Student of History - Softcover

Nina Revoyr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1617756644 ISBN 13: 9781617756641

Publisher: Akashic Books, 2019

Synopsis

Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighbourhood where his family once lived. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W, the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W, he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings.

Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W's grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals - which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. He also accompanies Mrs. W to venues frequented by the descendants of the land and oil barons who built the city. One evening, at an event, he meets Fiona Morgan - the elegant scion of an old steel family - who takes an interest in his studies. Irresistibly drawn to Fiona, he agrees to help her with a project of questionable merit in the hopes he'll win her favour.

A Student of History explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and present-day dynamics of race and class. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events. Like Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, it features, in Rick Nagano, a young man of modest means who is navigating a world where he doesn't belong.

About this title

Review

Critical Praise for Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr:

A Booklist Book of the Year 2011

Finalist for SCIBA's 2011 Fiction Award

Winner of the 2011 Midwest Booksellers Choice Award

Winner of the first annual Indie Booksellers Choice Award

Selected for IndieBound's March 2011 Indie Next List, "Great Reads from Booksellers You Trust"

Featured in O, The Oprah Magazine's March 2011 Reading Room section as one of "10 Titles to Pick Up Now"

"Revoyr does a remarkable job of conveying [protagonist] Michelle's lost innocence and fear through this accomplished story of family and the dangers of complacency in the face of questionable justice."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Revoyr writes rhapsodically of a young girl's enthrallment to the natural world and charts, with rising intensity, her resilient narrator's painful awakening to human failings and senseless violence. In this shattering northern variation on To Kill A Mockingbird, Revoyr drives to the very heart of tragic ignorance, unreason, and savagery."
--Booklist (starred review)

"Hauntingly provocative...an excellent choice for book discussion groups as it will force readers to dig deep and look inward."
--Library Journal

"Gripping and insightful."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A searing, anguished novel...The narration and pace are expertly calibrated as it explores a topic one wishes still wasn't so current."
--Los Angeles Times

"Much can be said and commended about the book's themes of loyalty and love...I'll just say that this author is a big talent. Her book is a little thing of beauty. It's a story with American historical significance; it's a novel with emotional heft; it's a satisfying read in the spirit of what Picasso said about another writer, James Joyce: 'The incomprehensible that everyone can understand.'"
--Brooklyn Rail

About the Author

Nina Revoyr is the author of five previous novels, including The Age of Dreaming, which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Southland, a Los Angeles Times best seller and "Best Book" of 2003; and Wingshooters, which won an Indie Booksellers' Choice Award and was selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of "10 Titles to Pick Up Now." Revoyr lives and works in Los Angeles.

About this edition

• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1617756644
• ISBN 13: 9781617756641
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240