Most Popular Books by Margot Livesey

A masterclass for those who love reading literature and for those who aspire to write it. “Read everything that is good for the good of your soul. Then learn to read as a writer, to search out that hidden machinery, which it is the business of art to conceal and the business of the apprentice to comprehend.” In The Hidden Machinery, critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author Margot Livesey offers a masterclass for those who love reading literature and for those who aspire to write it. Through close readings, arguments about craft, and personal essay, Livesey delves into the inner workings of fiction and considers how our stories and novels benefit from paying close attention to both great works of literature and to our own individual experiences. Her essays range in subject matter from navigating the shoals of research to creating characters that walk off the page, from how Flaubert came to write his first novel to how Jane Austen subverted romance in her last one. As much at home on your nightstand as it is in the classroom, The Hidden Machinery will become a book readers and writers return to over and over again.

“Consuming... . . . Explores themes of honesty and understanding by showing the impact that obsessions—grief, rapacity—can have on a marriage.” -The New Yorker Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optometrist in suburban Boston, he is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children and to each other. Then Mercury—a gorgeous young thoroughbred arrives at Windy Hill and everything changes. Everyone is struck by Mercury''s beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv begins to dream of competing again, embracing the ambitions that she had harbored, and relinquished, as a young woman. Her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession. Donald is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed. By the time he does, it is too late to stop the catastrophic collision of Viv’s ambitions and his own myopia. At once a tense psychological drama and a taut emotional thriller, Mercury is a riveting tour de force that showcases this “searingly intelligent writer at the height of her powers” (Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author). “You’ll be glued to the page.” -People, Pick of the Week “Like the recent blockbusters Gone Girl and Fates and Furies, Mercury gives us a marriage from alternating perspectives. Unlike those books, there is no looming gimmick or twist. The parties involved agree on what has happened. The question is whether or not their love can survive it.” -New York Times

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late-nineteenth-century Scotland “Bewitching and seductive.” —Rebecca Makkai, author of I Have Some Questions for You • “A treasure: a writer who understands the magic and mysteries of the human soul." —Chris Bohjalian, author of Hour of the Witch • “This book is a cold, clear, perfect lake." —Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it. Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance. Luminous and transporting, The Road from Belhaven once again displays “the marvelous control of a writer who conjures equally well the tangible, sensory world . . . and the mysteries, stranger and wilder, that flicker at the border of that world.” —The Boston Globe

Celia Gilchrist believes she has found the right man in Stephen, but when she moves in with him and his young daughter Jenny, things begin to go menacingly wrong. Money disappears, a sweater is ruined, and small, common-place lies escalate into awkward confrontations.

From a highly acclaimed author-the enchanting, bittersweet story of a motherless young woman torn between real life and the otherwordly companions only she can see. On the morning of Eva McEwen''s birth, six magpies congregate in the apple tree outside the window-a bad omen, according to Scottish legend. That night Eva''s mother dies, leaving her to be raised by her aunt and heartsick father in the small town of Troon, Scotland. As a child, Eva is often visited by two companions: a woman and a girl. Invisible to everyone else, they seem benevolent at first, helping her to tidy her room and collect the hens'' eggs. But as she grows older, their intentions become increasingly unclear: Do they wish to protect or harm her? Is their meddling in her best interest or prompted by darker motivations? In the shadow of World War II, Eva studies nursing in Glasgow, tending to the wounded soldiers. But when she falls in love with a young plastic surgeon, the companions seem to have a very different idea as to her fate, and once again she finds herself unable to resist their pull. A magical novel about loneliness, love, and the profound connection between mother and daughter, Eva Moves the Furniture fuses the simplicity of a fairy tale with the complexity of adult passions.

Following the acclaimed Criminals comes a spellbinding new novel that confirms Margot Livesey''s place "right up there," as Liz Smith wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "in the realm of P. D. James and the esteemed Patricia Highsmith." What if -- by stroke of fortune -- you could start afresh, could wipe away that catastrophic blunder in your past? And to what lengths would you go to establish that in fact you''d done nothing wrong at all? After an accident robs Hazel of three years'' worth of memory, just such an opportunity is granted to Jonathan, undone by his betrayal of this woman, whom he professes to love above all. While he begins to rewrite their history, two other misfits -- an American sojourner and a luckless English actress -- knock about London, each of them haunted by indelible memories they would much rather forget. Eventually their hopes of redemption draw them toward Jonathan''s house, where Hazel has become a virtual prisoner . . . Replete with compelling characters and extravagantly plotted, The Missing World weaves together these separate quests for love and truth in a manner both thrilling and, ultimately, revealing about our imperfect lives.

In London, a man picks up an abandoned baby in a bus station and gives it to his childless sister. It''s illegal, but she decides to keep it. What they don''t realize is that the baby is bait in a scheme to extort money. By the author of Homework.

A couple begins an intense affair, only to be separated abruptly-and perhaps irrevocably-in this surprising, suspenseful love story Zeke is twenty-nine, a man who looks like a Raphael angel and who earns his living as a painter and carpenter in London. He reads the world a little differently from most people and has trouble with such ordinary activities as lying, deciphering expressions, recognizing faces. Verona is thirty-seven, confident, hot-tempered, a modestly successful radio show host, unmarried, and seven months pregnant. When the two meet in a house that Zeke is renovating, they fall in love, only to be separated less than twenty-four hours later when Verona leaves abruptly, without explanation, for Boston. Both Zeke and Verona, it turns out, have complications in their lives, though not of a romantic kind. Verona''s involve her brother, Henry, who is tied up in shady financial dealings. Zeke''s father has had a heart attack and his mother is threatening to run away with her lover, all of which puts pressure on Zeke to take over the family grocery business. And yet he finds himself following Verona to Boston. As he pursues her, and she pursues Henry, both are forced to ask the perplexing question: Can we ever know another person? Deftly plotted and filled with unexpected twists, Livesey''s Banishing Verona marks the arrival of another lyrical and wise novel from a writer whose work "radiates with compassion and intelligence and always, deliciously, mystery" (Alice Sebold).

“[An] exquisite . . . whodunit. . . . But the real mysteries lie . . . compellingly with the characters who are witnesses to the crime. . . . quiet, observant . . . cinematic.” —New York Times Book Review One September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan Lang are walking home from school when they discover a boy lying in a field, bloody and unconscious. Thanks to their intervention, the boy’s life is saved. In the aftermath, all three siblings are irrevocably changed. Matthew, the oldest, becomes obsessed with tracking down the assailant, secretly searching the local town with the victim’s brother. Zoe wanders the streets of Oxford, looking at men, and one of them, a visiting American graduate student, looks back. Duncan, the youngest, who has seldom thought about being adopted, suddenly decides he wants to find his birth mother. Overshadowing all three is the awareness that something is amiss in their parents’ marriage. Over the course of the autumn, as each of the siblings confronts the complications and contradictions of their approaching adulthood, they find themselves at once drawn together and driven apart. The Boy in the Field showcases Margot Livesey’s unmatched ability to “tell her tale masterfully, with intelligence, tenderness, and a shrewd understanding of all our mercurial human impulses” (Lily King, author of Euphoria). “Luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered.” —Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River “Filled with dazzling insights and beauty.” —People Magazine “[Livesey’s novels are] successful at making the rich subtext of feeling, memory, and difficult life decisions mulled over, the main event of her stories.” —New York Journal of Book “Powerfully affecting.” —Kirkus, starred review “A masterful tapestry of emotion and action.” —Booklist, starred review

When her widower father drowns at sea, ten-year-old Gemma Hardy, an only child, is taken from her native Iceland to Scotland, to live with her uncle’s family. But the death of her doting guardian soon after leaves Gemma under the resentful eye of her aunt. When she receives a scholarship to a private school, Gemma believes she’s found the perfect solution, and she eagerly sets out again to a new home. But at Claypoole, she finds herself treated as an unpaid servant. To Gemma’s delight, the school finally goes bankrupt in 1959 and she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands. Remote Blackbird Hall belongs to Mr. Sinclair, a rich, single London businessman; his eight-year-old niece is Gemma’s charge. An unlikely pair, Gemma and Sinclair are nonetheless drawn to each another, but their courtship is cut short by Gemma’s discovery of a secret that has shadowed her employer’s life. Set in Iceland and Scotland in the 1950s and ’60s, The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a captivating homage to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre—a sweeping saga that resurrects the timeless themes of the original but is destined to become a classic all its own.

It seems like mutual good luck for Abigail and Dara when they meet at university and, despite their differences, become fast friends. Years later, they remain an unlikely pair: Abigail, an actress who confidently uses her charms both on and off stage, is reluctant to commit; Dara, a therapist, throws herself into every relationship with frightening intensity. Yet each seems—another stroke of luck?—to have found “true love”—Abigail with her academic boyfriend, and Dara with a tall, dark violinist. Soon, however, trouble threatens both relationships and the women’s friendship. Through four ingeniously interlocking narratives, Margot Livesey skillfully reveals how luck—good and bad—plays a vital role in our lives, and how our childhood legacies may be harder to leave behind than we hope. “Vibrant, evocative, irresistible” (Los Angeles Times), The House on Fortune Street offers a surprisingly provocative detective story of the heart, one that will keep you in its thrall.

A deluxe Harper Perennial Legacy Edition, with an introduction from Margot Livesey, award-winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy A compelling historical novel of two families wrestling with questions of honor, class, loyalty, democracy, and independence during the American Revolution, now available in a Harper Perennial Modern Classics Legacy Edition. In The Linwoods, Catharine Maria Sedgwick illuminates the American character and explores issues of civic virtue and national identity in the early republic, through the lives of two families: the Linwoods, dutiful loyalists, and the Lees, passionate revolutionaries. At the novel’s heart is Isabella Linwood, a bright and independent young woman who will transform from a proud Tory to ardent Rebel, challenging not only British rule but its accepted social, economic, and political institutions, including the aristocracy, slavery, and patriarchal authority. This Legacy Edition features a lush design and French flaps.

In London, a man picks up an abandoned baby in a bus station and gives it to his childless sister. It''s illegal, but she decides to keep it. What they don''t realize is that the baby is bait in a scheme to extort money.

A decent, harried young banker, already on the verge of distraction, hurries north to Scotland and his mysteriously troubled sister ... A "foreign" mother struggles to make a home for her family in a society she only vaguely comprehends ... A baby girl is abandoned in a bus-station rest room ... And thus five lives and more are caught up in a binding net of affection and responsibility, of sibling loyalty, romantic longing, and maternal love.

Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned by the age of ten, neglected by a bitter and cruel aunt, sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student, young Gemma seems destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman with dreams of the future, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands. But Gemma’s biggest trial is about to begin . . . A journey of passion and betrayal, secrets and lies, redemption and discovery that will lead her to a life she’s never dreamed of.

Reveals how luck-- good and bad-- plays a vital role in our lives, and how the search for truth can prove a dangerous undertaking.

Eva McEwen wächst sehr einsam in dem schottischen Städtchen Troon auf, ihre Mutter starb bei ihrer Geburt. Ihre Einsamkeit wird durch 2 Besucherinnen aus einer anderen Welt gemildert, die nur für Eva sichtbar sind.

Een neurotische Schotse vrouw verschanst zich met een vondelingetje in haar afgelegen huis omdat zij denkt door het moederschap haar problemen te kunnen oplossen.

Wanneer een vrouw na een ongeluk aan geheugenverlies lijdt, weet haar ex-vriend haar zo te manipuleren dat hij haar volledig in zijn macht heeft.

Pas de doute. Le bébé, ils le voulaient ces deux-là. Et compte tenu de sa propre et longue expérience, Kenneth sentait qu''ils étaient en train de glisser sur une pente douteuse, comme quand on se balade avec un walkman dans un magasin et qu''on manipule les boutons pendant une demi-heure et qu''enfin on bascule dans ce moment purement et simplement criminel où l''on glisse l''appareil dans sa poche avant de disparaître dans la ville glacée... Ewan, un jeune banquier londonien se rend-il compte qu''il commet ce que la loi appelle un crime - un kidnapping, en l''occurrence - quand il garde avec lui le bébé qu''il vient de trouver dans les toilettes d''une gare routière d''Ecosse ? Sa sœur, à qui il confie l''enfant, et qui n''est pas du tout pressée de le remettre à la police, devient aux yeux de la loi sa complice. Quant au mystérieux Kenneth, qui a tout vu et va s''empresser de les faire chanter, sait-il que le chantage est aussi passible des tribunaux ? Des vies qui n''auraient jamais dû se croiser vont alors se trouver inextricablement mêlées, en un terrible suspense.

Troon, nord de l''Ecosse, 1920... Orpheline de mère à sa naissance, Eva est élevée par son père et sa tante Lily au cœur d''une campagne rude. La fillette mène une existence paisible jusqu''au jour où deux mystérieuses visiteuses font leur apparition dans le jardin. Eva comprend qu''il s''agit de créatures surnaturelles, invisibles pour tous les autres, et qui peuvent changer à leur guise le cours de son existence. Les années passent et, à mesure qu''Eva grandit, cette étrange tutelle finit par lui peser. Lorsque la Seconde Guerre mondiale éclate, la jeune femme décide de partir pour Glasgow faire des études d''infirmière, espérant ainsi se soustraire à l''influence des deux esprits. Mais, quand elle s''éprend d''un jeune chirurgien, les visiteuses reviennent à la charge, faisant échouer ses projets de mariage et la renvoyant une fois de plus au doute et à la solitude. Mais qui sont donc ces créatures ? Pourquoi agissent-elles ainsi ? Leurs intentions sont-elles bonnes ou mauvaises ? Toutes ces questions, Eva ne parviendra à y répondre qu''après son retour à Glenaird, le village natal de sa mère... Dans la grande tradition des histoires de fantômes écossaises, Eva et ses amies est un savant mélange de suspense, de mystère et d''émotion.

Trois longues années... Trente-six mois qui, pour Hazel, ne sont plus qu''un trou noir d''où tout souvenir est aboli. A la suite d''un accident, la jeune femme reste cinq jours dans le coma. Au réveil, elle a tout oublié des trois ans qui viennent de s''écouler. Elle doit alors s''efforcer de reconstituer son passé. Jonathan l''y aidera, lui qui, elle le sait, a été son amant. Elle s''aperçoit très vite que ce dernier tient à tout prix à l''épouser. Mais dans le cerveau de Hazel, les souvenirs affluent par bribes, renforçant son angoisse face à un Jonathan de plus en plus déterminé, de plus en plus violent... Avec un art consommé du suspense, Margot Livesey entraîne le lecteur dans un dédale ou le vrai et le faux sont intimement mêlés, où l''amour et la vérité ne font pas toujours bon ménage.