About this item

"Capacious, unsentimental, and yet forgiving, Ultraviolet brings us both the intimacy of women's lives and their trajectories across continents and generations. This is Suzanne Matson at her wisest and deepest -- wonderful." -- Gish Jen, author of The Girl at the Baggage Claim Suzanne Matson's engrossing and intimate new novel, Ultraviolet, centers on Kathryn -- the daughter of Elsie and mother of Samantha -- while illuminating the lives of three generations of women, each more independent than the last. Their stories open in 1930s India, where Elsie lives with her authoritarian missionary husband and their children. Returning to the American Midwest as a teenager, Kathryn feels alienated and restless. When she loses her mother prematurely to a stroke, she escapes to Oregon for a fresh start.