Must Read Well

(Hardback)

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Description

Ellen Pall's Must Read Well immerses the reader in an escalating game of cat-and-mouse between two women: a millennial scholar driven to deceit to reach her goals and a frail octogenarian no less capable of deception.

Narrated by Liz Miller, a penniless Ph.D. candidate desperate to finish her dissertation, the novel begins when Liz's boyfriend abruptly ditches her, rendering Liz homeless and reduced to couch-surfing at best friend Petra's tiny Manhattan studio apartment. Trying to find an affordable living space, she stumbles across a Craigslist posting that will change her life: a room with a view in a pre-war Greenwich Village apartment. The rent is a pittance, but in exchange, the tenant must be willing to read aloud daily to the apartment's sight-impaired landlady.

Liz quickly figures out that the sight-impaired landlady is none other than Anne Taussig Weil, author of the 1965 international blockbuster The Vengeance of Catherine Clark and the very woman whose refusal to cooperate for the past four years has held up Liz's dissertation on the feminist works of mid-century women novelists. Access to Weil is the key to completing her doctorate at Columbia and finally getting her academic career back on track.

Liz sets scruples aside and presents herself as a quiet young woman still finding her way in life. Once settled in, Liz learns from Weil that her need for a reader stems from a desire to revisit a key episode in her life. That episode, recorded in the scrawled journals Weil kept since she was a young girl, turns out to be the story of her passionate, disastrous, secret love affair with a celebrated pianist-the affair, in fact, which gave rise to the plot of Vengeance.

The novel, which builds from there to a double-twist climax, is fast-paced women's fiction, perfect for book club members everywhere.

Reviews

"A slow-burn drumbeat of acute psychological suspense ... They say a great ending must be both surprising and inevitable, and Must Read Well delivers - twice."
--LEE CHILD, BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND 2020 BOOKER PRIZE JUDGE

"Ellen Pall creates an intriguing dance between discovery, literary wellsprings of influence and reflection, and the connections between two powerful, literate women who find their worlds intersecting at a critical junction in their lives...The result is a story that excels in suspense, revelation, and unexpected, changing relationships. Its special psychological tension and evocative explorations of lies, truth, and intention will especially attract libraries and readers interested in women's literary works ... The story is gripping on many levels, and is highly recommended reading for women who enjoy exposs steeped in interpersonal relationships, growth, and surprising revelations."
Midwest Book Review

"Beautifully crafted, suspenseful, and timely."
--GERALDINE BROOKS, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF HORSE, MARCH, CALEB'S CROSSING, AND YEAR OF WONDERS: A NOVEL OF THE PLAGUE

"Gorgeous, assured writing, a captivating plot, and a delicious, totally unexpected ending make for a seriously entertaining novel. Sit back and enjoy the read."
--JEANNE WINER, AUTHOR OF THE TRIPLE-STARRED MYSTERY HER KIND OF CASE

"Reading and writing are normally solitary and anonymous endeavors. Not so in Ellen Pall's bewitching Must Read Well, an examination of love, lust, and literature told via secret diaries read aloud--think Les Liaisons Dangereuses meets The Sorrows of Young Werther. Pall's gift for elegant prose belies a powerful tale spiced with romantic and professional duplicity. By turns sensuous and sensitive, Must Read Well is an irresistible narrative fueled by ambition and admiration."
--BARBARA BASBANES RICHTER, MEMBER, NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE

"From its suspenseful unfolding straight through to its gratifying ending, MUST READ WELL reads so well that I couldn't put it down."
--ALIX KATES SHULMAN, AUTHOR OF THE MILLION-SELLING MEMOIRS OF AN EX-PROM QUEEN

"Ellen Pall's enthralling and elegant tale of the complex relationship between a young ambitious scholar and a once famous older writer will keep readers sitting up late into the night. The suspense and tension never let up, the two women are so vivid that they almost leap off the page, and the conclusion is a stunner. For lovers of fine writing and gripping mysteries."
--LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF DISTURBANCES IN THE FIELD

Author Bio

Ellen Pall has published more than a dozen novels, including Among the Ginzburgs, Back East, and Corpse de Ballet. For ten years, she freelanced for The New York Times, writing many feature stories about people in the arts. She has served on the board of PEN America Center, taught writing at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and was a Shane Stevens Fellow at Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her personal essay, "To Recover Mother," was recently featured in The New York Review of Books. Though she lived for years in Los Angeles, she currently resides in New York City with her husband.