About this item
An uplifting novel about the families we create and the places we call home. It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead ("What's the difference? They're both new"), and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together. Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf.
About the Author
Alex George is a writer, a bookseller, a director of a literary festival, and a lawyer. He was born in England, but presently lives in the midwest of America.His novel, A Good American, was published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Penguin/Putnam, in February 2012. It was a #1 Indie Next Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Pick, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. It was a national and international bestseller.Setting Free The Kites was published in 2017, also by Penguin. It was an Indie Next Pick, a Barnes and Noble Best Fiction Pick, a Library Reads Choice and a Midwest Connection Pick.His latest novel, The Paris Hours, will be published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, on May 5, 2020.Alex read law at Oxford University and worked for eight years as a corporate lawyer in London and Paris. He moved to the United States in 2003. In addition to writing, he owns an independent bookshop, Skylark Bookshop, in downtown Columbia, MO. He is also the founder and director of The Unbound Book Festival, which will be holding its fifth annual festival in April 2020. Past guests have included Michael Ondaatje, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, and George Saunders. He is also a practicing attorney in his spare time.Alex has been named as one of Britain's top ten "thirtysomething" novelists by the Times of London, and was also named as the Independent on Sunday's "face to watch" for fiction in its Fresh Talent feature.Alex is married to the writer, professor, and critic, Alexandra Socarides. They live in Columbia, Missouri with their four children.
