New Releases by Christina Schwarz

At once darkly comedic and moving, this witty exploration of female friendship, envy, and misguided ambition by the author of the number-one bestseller Drowning Ruth, deliciously satirizes the desire to shine in the world. In All is Vanity, Margaret and Letty, best friends since childhood and now living on opposite coasts, reach their mid-thirties and begin to chafe at their sense that they are not where they ought to be in life. Margaret, driven and overconfident, decides the best way to rectify this is to quit her job and whip out a literary tour de force. Frustrated almost immediately and humiliated at every turn, Margaret turns to Letty for support. But as Letty, a stay-at-home mother of four, begins to feel pressured to make a good showing in the upper-middle-class Los Angeles society into which her husband’s new job has thrust her, Margaret sees a plot unfolding that’s better than anything she could make up. Desperate to finish her book and against her better nature, she pushes Letty to take greater and greater risks, and secretly steals her friend’s stories as fast as she can live them. Hungry for the world’s regard, Margaret rashly sacrifices one of the things most precious to her, until the novel’s suspenseful conclusion shows her the terrible consequences of her betrayal. Widely celebrated for her debut novel, Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz once again proves herself to be a writer of remarkable depth and range. Like Drowning Ruth, All is Vanity probes into the mysteries of the human heart and uncovers the passions that drive ordinary people to break the rules in pursuit of their own desires.

This is a haunting novel about the ties that bind families together and the insidious secrets that can rend them apart. Love, loss, guilt and lies are the narrative strands that run throughout this deftly woven tale of three women and a shocking turn of events that changes their lives forever.

Een vrouw die meer aanzien wenst in het leven, geeft haar baan als lerares op om een roman te schrijven, waarbij ze haar inspiratie vindt in de financiële problemen van haar beste vriendin.

Worn out from nursing soldiers at a Milwaukee hospital and struggling to recover from a traumatic love affair, Amanda Starkey returns to her family''s rural Wisconsin farm to stay with her beloved sister, Mattie, and young niece, Ruth.

Analyse: Roman familial. Roman psychologique (intime).

“POWERFUL . . . SUSPENSEFUL . . . RICHLY TEXTURED . . . [A] CHILLING, PRECOCIOUSLY GOOD START TO A BRIGHT NEW NOVELIST’S CAREER.” –The New York Times “[A] gripping psychological thriller . . . In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, troubled sister, and husband. . . . Told in the voices of several of the main characters and skipping back and forth in time, the narrative gradually and tantalizingly reveals the dark family secrets and the unsettling discoveries that lead to the truth of what actually happened the night of the drowning. . . . Schwarz certainly succeeds at keeping the reader engrossed.” –FRANCINE PROSE Us Weekly “DEFT AND ASSURED . . . [WITH] STRONG CHARACTERS AND A PLOT LONG ON TENSION AND SURPRISES.” –Time “A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel about horrifying family secrets and nearly annihilating guilt. Drowning Ruth is a complex and rewarding debut.” –ANITA SHREVE Author of The Pilot’s Wife “RIVETING . . . A VERY SUSPENSEFUL TALE, ONE THAT WILL KEEP READERS UP SHIVERING IN THE NIGHT.” –USA Today

Amanda orker ikke å se én eneste lemlestet kropp til. Søsterens tilværelse ved Nagawaukee Lake, Wisconsin, fortoner seg som et fredfullt liv. Det passer bra at barndomshjemmet ligger isolert til, all den tid Amanda bærer på sin ennå godt skjulte hemmelighet. En mørk kveld utspiller det seg en dramatisk scene seg på isen. Noen dager senere blir Mathilda funnet druknet. Ruth er for liten til å huske detaljene, alt hun vet er at også hun en gang druknet. Tante Amanda er imidlertid sparsom med opplysninger om fortiden, og hevder at Ruth må ha drømt. Men hvor kommer Imogene fra, jenta som tanten har tatt under sine vinger? Gjennom Amanda og Ruths egne historier dras leseren inn i et fortettet familiedrama preget av skyld, skam, plikt, tap, løgner og kjærlighet. Dette er den amerikanske forfatteren Christina Schwarz''s debutroman, boken vakt stor oppmerksomhet da den ble utgitt i USA.

Wanneer een verpleegster vlak na de Eerste Wereldoorlog tot rust komt bij haar zuster en dier gezin, vindt er een tragedie plaats waarvan de ware toedracht pas jaren later duidelijk wordt.