Blackbird Fly - Brossura

McClendon, Lise

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0981944272 ISBN 13: 9780981944272

Casa editrice: Thalia Press, 2009

Riassunto

A house in France connects three women — the woman who owns the house, the woman who lives in the house, and the woman who died in the house sixty years before. Merle Bennett inherits the house of her late husband, in a small village in the Dordogne. But when she arrives a deranged squatter won't let her inside.

Secrets from the post-war period, when southwest France was left to wither by Nazi occupation, and secrets of a newer kind, disrupt what should be a fine French summer for Merle. With her teenage son in tow, a sexy roofer in her kitchen, and a nasty discovery in the pissoir, there is plenty to keep her mind off her endless to-do list.In her first stand-alone suspense novel, Lise McClendon reaches deep into the past to find a France untouched by the outside world of tourism and fashion. Writing in a "lyrical, often humorous style," she brings both the pain and rewards of rebirth and the rich French countryside to life.

The descriptions of the French village and house make them a character. Blackbird Fly has love and intrigue, and proof that family bonds are strong enough to reach beyond the grave. —LuxuryReading.com

“This book brought me back to wanting to keep reading until the very end. Pour yourself a nice Merlot and keep turning the pages.”

“An intriguing story, a mystery with heart.”

“The characters were real and completely developed. All loose ends were tied up very nicely. This book climbed inside the main characters, flaws and all.”

“A very well written story, with characters that are interesting, likeable, and you care about them. There are dead bodies, suspense, and mystery. It's just a great story!”

From the Author

A novel has a distinct setting but it's the people who drive the action. I wanted to write about a part of France many Americans have never visited. Through the internet Americans living in France provided answers to my questions, sent me photos, became pen-pals and then friends. Generous and friendly to a fault, one new pen-pal lived in Bergerac at the time. Later she moved to Cahors then Puy-l'Évêque, and sent me missives describing her adventures. One delightful consequence of writing this novel was almost life-imitates-art when I finally met Sharon in France.

My research led me to seek out a picturesque bastide village. I used Monpazier as a home base. The village in the book, the fictional Malcouziac, is pretty but it is definitely not Monpazier. The only similarity is the structure of the bastide, the stone walls crumbling, the hilltop location surrounded by vineyards and lush, tree-tangled ravines, the narrow pedestrian streets and half-renovated houses. Without the setting the story wouldn't have come alive in my imagination. When Merle Bennett dreams of France, she remembers the light: golden, warm, nourishing. And she can't stay away, even if it makes no practical sense to use her last nickel to go there.

The village should be idyllic: sunshine, vineyards, and walls of yellow stone. Merle gets an off-the-books job as a tour guide at a local winery and evicts a squatter. But the townspeople are more than merely unfriendly. As the past unravels, colliding with modern tensions and the filthy trials of renovation, the summer takes on a dark cast, full of secrets best left buried.

Whether you look out your real window, or the one in your mind I hope Blackbird Fly brings it all to life for you. Pour a glass of wine and enjoy.

Want more Lise McClendon? Read her new novel, a twist on Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice, All Your Pretty Dreams. On sale now here on Amazon.

Su questo libro

L'autore

A lifelong Francophile, Lise McClendon had always wanted to write a book set in France. When a passing comment from a friend about a bicycle trip to the Dordogne sparked an interest in that region in southwest France, a mission began. Research is often the most fun part of writing a book, and when the research absolutely must be done on the ground in the wine-soaked, truffle-growing, backwoodsy province of Dordogne, fun is the word. But still there is the writing. How to take such a setting and make it come alive through the eyes of an American woman? The quest for the story through Merle Bennett, middle sister of five girls, was a delightful trip. Not all fun and games because writing, making the story work for the reader, is often fraught with landmines. Lise wanted to incorporate past stories of women who lived in the region, especially the woman who had lived in Merle's house right after World War II. A lover of family secrets, of peeling back the onion layer by layer, Lise goes deep into the past, to the desolation of the post-war era, to desperate actors, to men with nothing to lose, and women with next to nothing. The book becomes a journey of self-discovery for Merle, a driven lawyer and human rights advocate who works on housing issues for the poor. She leaves her big city life behind for the summer and finds much more than she expected: a world reborn inside her. Hope. A future without fear. Lise McClendon writes fiction from her home in Montana when not researching novels around the world.

Product Description

Behind the golden stone walls of a village in southwest France, American Merle Bennett finds solace from her grief while renovating her late husband's ancestral home. But things don't go as planned. Soon any calm she feels during her French summer is overshadowed by secrets from the past.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Thalia Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0981944272
• ISBN 13: 9780981944272
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 380