Antonia Lively Breaks the SilenceAuthor: David Samuel Levinson
Publisher: Algonquin
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Book Description:
One writer’s mysterious death, another’s relentless quest for fame, and a bitter literary critic’s passion for manipulation drive the story of this haunting novel set in a small upstate New York college town in the 1990s.
Catherine Strayed is living a quiet, un- remarkable life in a secluded college town following the mysterious death of her husband, a promising writer whose death may have been an accident, a suicide, or perhaps even a murder. When her former mentor (and onetime lover)—a powerful critic who singlehandedly destroyed her late husband’s chance for success—takes a teaching job at the college, Catherine’s world threatens to collapse. For with him has come his latest protégé, an exotic young woman named Antonia Lively. Antonia’s debut novel has become a literary sensation—but it is, in fact, an almost factual retelling of a terrible crime that she relates without any concern for the impact its publication will have on the lives of those involved.
As Antonia insinuates herself into Catherine’s life, mysterious and frightening things start to happen, because unbeknownst to Catherine, the younger woman intends to plunder her own dark, regrettable past—and the unsolved death of her husband—for her next literary triumph.
Provocative and cunning, Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence asserts that fiction is never truly fictional and asks, What does stealing another’s life do to your soul? Levinson spins a tale of surprises, peeling back one revelation only to find another in this tightly wrought, wickedly cynical look at the worlds of academia, publishing, and celebrity.
Idgie Says:
Do you believe that an author would ever use someone else's unfortunate life history to create a winning novel? Do you believe they would creep into your life to wait for things to happen so that they can have that New York Times list book? Nooo.. writers don't do that - wink wink. (None of the author's I know would do that!)
This story has so many twists and turns and secrets, and if they all come out, someone is guaranteed to have that highly sought after winning novel - if they're willing to run over everyone in their path, regardless of how bad the hurt may be, to tell the tale.
A deliciously detailed book about the good.. and the bad.. in the publishing industry. Chuck Adams, Executive Editor of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, states that this book will enrage some readers with it's literary dirty secrets, shock others with it's frankness of the behind the scenes events in the literary giants' worlds and entertain everyone with it's twists and turns. I have to agree and say that I couldn't put it any better. If you have an actual interest in the literary world itself, it's a great look into the magic ball.