Margot Livesey's first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published by Penguin Canada in 1986. Since then she has published seven novels, including: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, and The House on Fortune Street.Her new novel is The Flight of Gemma Hardy.
A few weeks ago I asked Livesey what she was reading. Her reply:
I just read Stewart On'Nan's Emily, Alone which I found entirely absorbing. Here is a novel in which almost nothing happens - a phone call from her daughter is a major event for Emily - and yet I could scarcely bear to put it down.Visit Margot Livesey's website and Facebook page.O'Nan does an amazing job of depicting Emily's life as an elderly widow living alone with her dog, listening to classical music and enjoying modest outings with her sister-in-law. Reading these pages, I felt I began to understand what it was like to have ardent thoughts and feeling but mostly be unable to act on them. I too found myself upset when the two for one brunch was inferior or a funeral a little below standard. And one of the great pleasures of the novel is that Emily's life actually expands rather than contracts - she buys a new car and begins, rather hesitantly, to drive again. I particularly admired the beautiful and almost optimistic ending.
Writers Read: Margot Livesey (September 2009).
The Page 69 Test: The Flight of Gemma Hardy.
--Marshal Zeringue
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