About this item
A brightly fun and incredibly moving novel about three bickering adult siblings rebuilding their family in the wake of tragedy for readers of The Nest.When their father invites the three Blair siblings home to his New Hampshire farm for a long weekend, Ruth, George, and Lizzie agree to keep things pleasant. But each one has a secret agenda. And, in true Blair fashion, so does their father, Murray. He thinks that if he can just get Lizzie in a room with Ruth and George, they'll convince her to break up with her much older boyfriend. But his plans, along with those of his children, are derailed when Lizzie turns up with a burnt hand, a damaged family cookbook, and the possibility of criminal charges.This is not the first time the Blair family has been thrown into chaos. In fact, that cookbook, an old Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School edition, is the last remaining artifact from a more idyllic time, a time when they had a mother and an older brother and a public reputation to maintain. A time before the accident. And the handwritten notes inside its pages are a trail leading back to their mother, Lillian, whose own life and all its mysteries become a second narrative alongside that of her family.With great care and a warmly genuine sense of humor, Elisabeth Hyde crafts two interweaving stories: the life and death of Lillian Blair, and the over-bearing, bickering, but loving children who look for ways to connect with one another in her absence. In both accounts, Hyde reminds readers that families fight both with and for each other.
About the Author
I grew up in Concord, NH, the third of 4 daughters. ("I'll try anything four times," my father used to joke.) The quick tour: majored in English at the University of Vermont, went to law school at UC Hastings, and practiced antitrust law with the Department of Justice. Then I made the big switch -- when my husband got a job teaching law in Seattle, I left my job as a lawyer and set out to write a novel. Discipline, discipline: 5 pages a day minimum. Sometimes it took me 2 hours, sometimes 8. But within the year I managed to write a very FIRST first novel, and Her Native Colors was published by Delacorte in 1986. This was followed by Monoosook Valley in 1988. Crazy As Chocolate took me 10 years to write (3 kids having something to do with this) , and after all that work, it was actually turned down by my then-agent. This was perhaps the lowest point in my career.
But I made a list of publishers that accepted unagented submissions, and the first one I sent it to, MacAdam-Cage, took it. They didn't offer an advance, but I felt so lucky to be back in the game, so to speak, that I didn't care. Crazy As Chocolate came out in 2002, to great reviews.
I wrote The Abortionist's Daughter after someone criticized my work for being "too quiet." So I thought, okay, I'll write a murder mystery. And I'll make the victim the most controversial figure I can imagine. I began the novel with the image of Dr. Diana Duprey swimming laps on a snowy night in her inside pool, and took it from there. It taught me a lot, writing a more tightly plotted novel, and thanks to my agent Molly Friedrich, it landed me a two-book contract with Knopf. There were a lot of foreign sales as well, and it became a best seller in England when it was chosen as a summer selection for the Richard and Judy show (England's Oprah) , complete with huge ads in the Tube. Sometimes the stars do line up.
In the Heart of the Canyon came about after our family took a trip down the Grand Canyon in 2002. I hadn't wanted to go (too hot, just a bunch of rocks) , but as it turned out, I got completely seduced by life on the river. So much so that I wanted to run away and become a river guide. But my rational half prevailed, and so I started writing about it instead. And I pestered the guides from our first trip so much that they eventually let me go along as a guide's assistant on another trip. Basically I was there to schlep things around (kitchen gear, water pump, etc.) , but the guides were really patient and let me hang out with them, time that helped me develop the character of JT, the trip leader in the novel.
Right now I'm working on another more tightly plotted book. I don't know how many drafts I've written; lots; but it takes a lot of work to get a book to where you want it to be, and sometimes you just have to slog it out. Hopefully you'll be
