How Losing a Printer Connection Can Crazy Up Your Life--and What's Going on This Week at Boswell.

Between Jason and Stacie's work at trying to get our previously working connection to the good printer fixed after we upgraded the computer in our break room/marketing/programming/sign making office, we've wound up getting behind in doing some of our event signage. I wound up making a lot of signs yesterday. You would think I would now know how to describe our events like the back of my hand, but it turns out that aside from the popping out veins, I can't do that good a job with my hand.  So I'm using the crutch of repurposed marketing materials.  Forgive me!

Monday, September 19, Franklin Public Library, 5:30 pm:
Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of Torn.

Haddix is the author of many much-beloved works for middle graders through teens.  She's appearing for Torn, the fourth installment of The Missing series. The Franklin Public Library is not too far off Highway 100. The fastest way is likely to be the Loomis exit of 894.

Here's the premise: "One night a plane appears out of nowhere, the only passengers aboard: 36 babies. As soon as they are taken off the plane, they vanish. Now, 13 years later, two of those children are receiving sinister messages, and they begin to investigate their past."

It turns out that each child is a famous historical figure that went missing from history.  Book four involves John Hudson, the child of explorer Henry Hudson.

Regarding the Franklin Public Library, if I were looking for a place to eat around there, I'd probably eat at Ann's Italian Restaurant. It's not just Milwaukee's best pizza anymore, or so I've heard!

***

Also on September 19, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Sophie Hannah, author of The Cradle in the Grave and other novels of psychological suspense.

Being that I will be in Franklin, Stacie will be taking the honors on that one, but I would like to get back before the whole thing ends, as I read the new book and have written several blog posts about it.

Fliss Benson, a TV producer, is slated to take the reins on a documentary about crib-death mothers wrongly accused of murder. The work done so far has exonerated three of the women, and the doctor who did her best to send them to prison for life, child protection zealot Dr Judith Duffy, is under investigation for misconduct. But, when one of the mothers is found dead and additional mysterious clues arise, the cases begin to hit a little too close to home.

“This book’s triumph is that it is not just a perfectly executed psychological thriller, but a pertinent meditation on society itself.” says The Guardian, and the Daily Express raves “When it comes to ingenious plots that twist and turn like a fairground rollercoaster few writers can match Sophie Hannah. This complex and beautifully written tale kept me guessing right till the very last page.”

As I mentioned in the blog, Hannah is also a noted poet in Great Britain.  We've gotten in a few copies of her poetry collections and I've asked her to open and close the evening with her work.  She was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize for her most previous collection.

***

Wednesday, September 21, 7 pm, at Boswell:
It's another poetry event, with local favorites Suzanne Rosenblatt, Bill Murtaugh, and Lucille Rosenberg, which Suzanne has titled "Glimpses: Past--Present--Future." Each poet has at least one collection or chapbook for sale at Boswell. 

Want a copy of one of their books?  It's available on our Read Local page.

***

Thursday, September 22, 4 pm, West Allis Public Library:
Lisa McMann, appearing for The Unwanteds.

McMann, known for The Wake trilogy and Cryer's Cross, has written a new series that will expand her audience to middle graders, but should interest her existing young adult readers. Hence, what I think has been the jacket change from the early advance copy.  It definitely skewed a little young.  Apparently McMann will show both, and you'll get to vote on which you like better.  Here's the setup for the new book:

Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent to their deaths.

Thirteen-year-old Alex tries his hardest to be stoic when his fate is announced as Unwanted, even while leaving behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted. Upon arrival at the destination where he expected to be eliminated, however, Alex discovers a stunning secret--behind the mirage of the "death farm" there is instead a place called Artime. In Artime, each child is taught to cultivate their creative abilities and learn how to use them magically, weaving spells through paintbrushes and musical instruments. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it's a wondrous transformation.

But it's a rare, unique occurrence for twins to be separated between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron's bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artime that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate, magical battle.

If you were taking the freeway, the library is about equidistant from the 60th Street exit of 94 or the Greenfield exit of 894.  It just depends on where you're coming from.

I'm attending a formal dinner afterwards, but McMann and I agreed that if we were able to eat wherever we wanted afterwards, we'd head due east down National and head to La Merenda for delicous international tapas.

***
(Meanwhile, back at the ranch)
Thursday, September 22,  7 pm, at Boswell:
It's our first of the 2011-2012 UWM student/faculty reading.  Our featured readers are:
Melissa Olson
Jennifer Kontny
Brittany Cavallaro

In addition, Maurice Kilwein-Guevara will read some fiction by Lupe Solis, a UWM alum who passed away last month of pancreatic cancer at age 50.

***

Saturday, September 24, 2 pm, at Boswell:
Gioia Diliberto, author of Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife.

With the success of The Paris Wife, novelist Paula McClain’s fictional account of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife, as well as the runaway Woody Allen film, "Midnight in Paris", it seems 1920’s literary Paris is back en vogue. Always part of the hottest literary trends, Boswell is proud to present the author of a new biography about Hadley, a fascinating woman who ran Paris’ literary circles with her husband as he wrote some of his seminal works of classic literature.

Gioia Diliberto’s impeccable research skills breathe new life into this haunting account of the young Hemingways. From their passionate courtship and their thrilling, adventurous relationship, to family life in Paris with baby Bumby, to its tragic end, Paris Without End is a riveting story of literary love. Compelling, illuminating, poignant, and deeply insightful, Diliberto provides readers a rare, intimate glimpse of the writer who so fully captured the American imagination and the remarkable woman who inspired his passion and his art—the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving.

Yes, we're keeping pretty busy. Hope to see you at one of these events!

Part 2 of Sophie Hannah (coming to Boswell on 9/19)--What's Up with the Title Changes?

Part II: The Changing of the Titles.

It's been my thought that in the age of international publications and global web access, the end of the changed title would be upon us.  Sophie Hannah is clearly a textbook case to argue against this, my Dr. Judith Duffy, as it were.

Sophie Hannah's had the pleasure of having four of the five titles in this series renamed for the American market. Here are her books in order:

1. Little Face
2. The Truth-Teller's Lie, which was published as Hurting Distance in the UK

3. The Wrong Mother, which before its trans-Atlantic journey was Point of Rescue

4. The Dead Lie Down, originally The Other Half Lives

5. A Cradle in the Grave, which in the UK is A Room Swept White.

Of course I am fascinated by this. How does a title change reposition the books? Are the original titles too British? Does the new title change the potential audience?  Time to contemplate.

My initial thought was that Penguin was trying either to reposition, or perhaps dual-position, the novel not just as a mystery, but as contemporary women's fiction, perhaps along the lines of a British Jodi Picoult.  There is good reason for this. Like Picoult, Hannah uses social issues to frame many of her novels. There is a crime element to just about all of the Picoult novels; she's done a number of signings at mystery bookstores over the years.

But Picoult's success was mostly from book clubs and connecting with her customer base and amazing word of mouth. And that's also a hint to me--I think this is at least Hannah's third visit to Milwaukee for five books.  That's a lot of touring to the midwest for a writer who lives in Cambridge, England. To my knowledge, she did at least one event at Schwartz, one event at Next Chapter (plus I think Books & Company also had a visit on one or both of these visits--you'll excuse me for not having a historical record of who went where) and now we're hosting her at Boswell. Watch--I'll find out she didn't really visit those other times.  When we hosted Chuck Klosterman, I learned that this was his first visit to Milwaukee, even though I had this strong memory of him visiting previously.)

So looking at the titles, I think that this might have been in the back of someone's mind when re-titling installments two and three, The Truth-Teller's Lie, and The Wrong Mother, but not really for the most recent two entries, which still have a strong mystery feel to them. By using "death" words, in The Dead Lie Down, and The Cradle in the Grave, you more firmly plant the feet of the book in the mystery genre, to my opinion.  So it seemed to me that the vision of breaking Hannah out veered a little more in the direction of Tana French, which is why French has a very prominent quote on the new title:

"The title really sells it.  It's creepy stuff, which sophie's things often are, quite necessarily." 

So here's my question.  Since French is Irish, which title is she referring to, as the book was likely published in Dublin as A Room Swept White?  I am actually quite attached to the UK title, as the reference is in a poem called "Anchorange", by Fiona Sampson, which becomes a clue in the novel. I suspect that in using a poem as one of the clues, Hannah plays homage to her own second life as a poet, having had several volumes of poetry published, most recently, Pessimism for Beginners.

"What flutters is a bird: blown in
By accident, or wild design
Of grace, a taste of something sweet
The emptied self, a room swept white."

I hope I am allowed to quote a stanza of these things. More on Fiona Sampson here. Both Hannah and Sampson are published by Carcanet, which seems to have some American distribution. I am checking to see if we can carry some of her poetry for the event, and also whether Hannah might bookend the talk with some poems of her own.

In the end, I think some of the retitlings were a good idea, but here I vote for A Room Swept White. I think even Penguin was on the fence, as some of the references in the body of the book, most notably the acknowledgements, refer to the British edition.  There's also the book within the book (or rather, in this case, the two books within the book) which is is thrown off by the title change.  And yes, I could write an entire blog piece just about books within books.  I love them!

The book was clearly re-edited for America, as the British spellings were not noticeable.  There is the use of the word "lounge" for "living room", but I jolly well liked that.

So there you have it, a whole lot of meditation on Sophie Hannah. What I can't tell you is the inside joke regarding the numbers on the card. I just discovered this and thought it was quite good.  Also, I did figure out that next book continues the thread of changed titles.  Hodder and Stoughton (UK) are calling it Lasting Damage, while the Penguin American edition will be titled The Other Woman's House.  Visit Hannah's website for more tidbits. And join us on Monday, September 19, 7 pm, for a talk/reading with Ms. Hannah.

Sophie Hannah in Two Acts, Regarding her Appearance on September 19 at Boswell. Part One: Mystery or Novel?

Part I: The Mystery or the Novel, That is the Question.

I just finished reading my first Sophie Hannah novel. In a sense, The Cradle in the Grave is a traditional mystery series.  There are two detectives, Sgt. Charlotte (Charlie) Zailer and Sgt. Simon Waterhouse, that have appeared in all her novels since Little Face.

Here's the setup. There are three women (perhaps more) who've claimed SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) but may have actually murdered their children.  A production company is working on a documentary that attempts to defend the three, blaming a medical expert who gave the damning evidence. Felicity (Fliss) Benson, one of the staff producers, is given a big promotion when her boss, Laurie Nattrass (a guy, this is British) mysteriously resigns his post.  And everyone is getting these cards with 16 digits in a four-by-four grid.

In another sense, Hannah's novel is anything but traditional.  Like Kate Atkinson and Tana French, Hannah plays with the structure of the mystery novel. For one thing, Hannah takes much longer to play out the crimes, and spends a lot more time developing the characters. Fliss is half in love with her ex-boss Laurie, and this promotion has thrown off her friendship with her once colleague, now laid-off friend, Tamsin. The three accused women, Helen Yardley, Rachel (Ray) Hines, and Sarah Jaggard, all have very different stories.  One of them, Ray, has befriended Judith Duffy, the doctor who testified that the children were murdered.

Until the story settles in, the story begins with several pieces of evidence--a news report, an interview with a suspect, and an excerpt from Helen Yardley's memoir, Nothing but Love.  Yardley is perhaps the most notable of the three cases, having served prison time before having her case reversed, and her memoir is a vital piece of evidence, particularly when (and I'm not giving away anything more than the back jacket copy here) Helen is murdered.

As you know, I often suggest to folks that they read series novels in the order they were written, but there are exceptions. My former colleague Jack always reminded me to start folks reading Lee Child somewhere around book #5 and then let them revisit the older titles later, once they are into the series.

In the case of Sophie Hannah, it's something different.  In many mystery novels, whoever else is in the book, the detective is the true protagonist.  The victim, the accused, the next target, are all secondary.  But Hannah really tries to bring the other characters to the fore; it could be argued that Fliss, the amateur trying to figure out what is going on as the detectives are also piecing together the puzzle, is the real protagonist here.

Having not read psychological thrillers, I wonder if this is one of the hallmarks of the subgenre. Another is the focus on the motivation, and to do this, you really need to develop the backstory more. The Scotsman says it best: "It is the most adept of psychological thrillers, in which--as with Hannah's other novels--the psychosis lying just below the surface of the human personality is exposed." That of course makes the story quite a bit longer--at 450 pages, The Cradle in the Grave is one of the longer mysteries I've read. And unlike some of the other books of that length, it is not one of those rollercoaster-chasey novels. There's a denseness here and if you read too quickly, you'll lose some strands of the plotline.

Much like the three women (Hines, Jaggard, and Yardley) who make up the mothers accused of murdering their children, I am finding threes everywhere connected to Hannah's story.  To my knowledge, this is Hannah's third time in Milwaukee, and we have three readers on Hannah's new novel, which besides me, consists of Sharon and Anne.  Anne's mystery group also read The Dead Lie Down on September 22.  I was hoping to attend, but as folks who read this blog know, I was in Seattle. Want to join our mystery book club?  They meet on the third Monday of each month, at 7 pm.

I've got some reviews for you in threes too.  Here's Rebecca Armstrong in the Independent, meditating on the protagonists, which I have actually spent little time on: "Hannah has given Waterhouse rather more backbone than in his previous outing, even if he and Zailer's engagement is still as dysfunctional as ever. But it's this dysfunction that makes Hannah's characters so human. They're plagued with doubt, embarrassment and regret, living flawed lives as best they can." Read the whole review here.

Jeremy Jehu in the Telegraph posits that "Sophie Hannah has a poet’s eye, and she creates characters and settings of closely observed complexity in her psychological mysteries." More on their website.

I can't find the link, but Hannah has the Daily Express review on her website: "‘When it comes to ingenious plots that twist and turn like a fairground rollercoaster few writers can match Sophie Hannah. This complex and beautifully written tale kept me guessing right till the very last page."

Can I analyze this text any further? Sure I can! That's why tomorrow's blog post is about changing Sophie Hannah's titles for the American market. I've also put together a lovely jacket design for Nothing but Love, Helen Yardley's memoir. And don't forget--Sophie Hannah is at Boswell on Monday, September 19, 7 pm.