Gillyflower: A Novel

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Boston, 1984. Even in a world without cell phones, messages come through loud and clear if one is listening. When thirty-something Nora Forrest travels to Manhattan to see a Broadway play starring her idol, an aging Irish actor named Hugh Sheenan, she doesnt know whether what happens in the theater that night should be credited to witchcraft, extrasensory perception, synchronicity, or simple accidentand she knows that many people would tell her nothing had happened at all.

is a story about intersections and connectionsreal, imaginary, seized, and eluded. Its a book about everyday magic, crystalline memory, and the details that flow through time and space like an electrified mist. Its a detective story, a love story, and a coming-of-age storyfor the never really young and for the almost old.

Reviews

2020 International Book Awards Winner in Fiction: Novella 2020 Independent Press Award Winner in Paranormal Romance 2019 Best Book Awards Winner in Fiction (Novella) 2019 Readers' Favorite Awards Bronze Medal Winner in Fiction (Visionary) 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Winner in Novella "Haunting and exquisite, Diane Wald explores beauty, desire, and dreams in her gorgeously written Gillyflower. Dreamy artist Nora and fading theatrical star Hugh share an electrifying moment when she is in the front row of one of his performances. She sends him a drawing of that moment. Captivated by it, disturbed by it, he is determined to dissect why that moment had such an effect. Beautiful writing supports rich characters who don't take the easy way out." --Next Generation Indie Book Awards Judge "...An intelligent and sensitive exploration of the ineffable power of connection and coincidence...Wald's elegant and graceful prose begs to be savored...A haunting meditation on lives that intersect in unexpected ways." --Kirkus Reviews "Diane Wald is a magician. This wondrous novel about dreams that come true is by turns charming and alarming and utterly disarming. Brace yourself. You are about to witness a breathtaking sleight of heart." --Michael Downing, best-selling author of Perfect Agreement and Breakfast with Scot "In lush language, at an unhurried pace, Diane Wald beautifully observes the prelude and progression of a mysterious love begun in a shared dream." --Ellen Wittlinger, author of Hard Love, a Lambda Literary Award prize winner and Printz Honor Book, and many other novels "In Diane Wald's lyrical and deeply compelling novel Gillyflower, she expertly explores the mystic telepathy exchanged between two total strangers thrown together in that comedy of errors we call love. In this insightful and finely tuned story, she asks, 'What is the mysterious alchemy that converts the fool's gold of a romantic crush into the molten bullion of passion' Wald expresses the inexpressible role played by clairvoyance, imagination, delusion, and self-fulfilling prophecy in our lives. Like the story's bemused protagonist, you'll finish this riveting story by concluding that 'I never did get past the wonder of it!'" --Charles Creekmore, author of Back to Walden: How Thoreau Can Change Your Life Today "What sets this quixotic love story apart from other tales of obsession is the sly way it reveals not only the intrigues of the lovers' relationship but also the mysteries of the relationships that surround them. Gillyflower's beauty lies in showing us that even the rarest, most obscure love never grows in isolation; it exists, like all of us, in connection to other living things." --Jennifer Tseng, award-winning author of The Passion of Woo and Isolde and Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness "Gillyflower is an intriguing, romantic, mysterious tale ... [t]he perfect combination of suspense, romance, mysticism, and fantasy...Gillyflower starts off strong and stays that way the entire way through, making it the kind of easy-to-read, well-paced story you won't soon forget." --Readers' Favorite "The story has a lot to say about revering celebrities and enduring love. It's up to the reader to decide what to think about the encounter between Nora and Hugh, and what it might mean." --San Francisco Book Review ". . . Diane Wald's meditative literary novel Gillyflower is an experiment in restraint. . . a delicate character study in which a single shared look impacts several lives--a psychological drama with an otherworldly atmosphere. Its introspective passages, images and omens, and subtle characterizations suit this work, and the finale is subdued and potent." --Foreword Reviews

Author Bio

Diane Wald was born in Paterson, NJ, and has lived in Massachusetts since 1972. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has published more than 250 poems in literary magazines since 1966. She spent two years on a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and has been awarded the Grolier Poetry Prize, The Denny Award, The Open Voice Award, and the Anne Halley Award. She also received a state grant from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts. She has published five chapbooks and won the Green Lake Chapbook Award from Owl Creek Press. Her book Lucid Suitcase was published by Red Hen Press in 1999 and her second book, The Yellow Hotel, was published by Verse Press in the fall of 2002. WONDERBENDER, her third collection, was published by 1913 Press. She lives outside of Boston with her husband, Carey Reid, and their charismatic cats.