Lynn Kiele Bonasia is the author of three novels. Released this June, Countess Nobody, her first novel for young adults, is about a teenage girl whose noble dreams are dashed when she learns she won’t inherit the family title. Summer Shift and Some Assembly Required are women’s fiction set on Cape Cod where Bonasia lives and writes.A few weeks ago I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
The way I came to this book was through a dear friend, Kermit Moyer, whose fabulous collection of short stories set in the fifties, The Chester Chronicles, won the 2011 L.L. Winship PENN New England Award for fiction. The award was presented to him byVisit Lynn Kiele Bonasia's website and blog.Pulitzer Prize winning author Marilynne Robinson, which for him was a profound experience because he credits her novel Housekeeping with having inspired him to write in the first place.
Who could ask for a better recommendation?
In the novel, two girls are left with relatives after their mother’s suicide. A young aunt comes to care for them, and her unreliability as housekeeper is gradually revealed. Never have I encountered a book with a more powerfuland relevant sense of place, where one could truly argue setting is a character. (Best town name ever: Fingerbone.) As the flood waters rise, we’re filled with a sense of quiet desperation, and the inevitability that even when the waters recede, things can never be the same, and that the only way to slog through life’s hardships is to keep moving. An unconventional plot, rich setting, powerful narration and well-drawn characters make this one of those books that leaves its water marks on the psyche.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Lynn Kiele Bonasia & Kiele.
The Page 69 Test: Summer Shift.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
