It Is Wood, It Is Stone: A Novel

(Paperback)

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"A lush depiction of privilege and power, sex and stability . . .following three women in S o Paulo. . .It Is Wood, It Is Stoneis an elegant arrival of a new talent."-Elle NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Good Housekeeping . Marie Claire .Harper's Bazaar . Publishers Weekly With sharp, gorgeous prose, It Is Wood, It Is Stone takes place over the course of a year in Sa-o Paulo, Brazil, in which two women's lives intersect. Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved to Sa-o Paulo, with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda's unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda's home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda's instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way. An exquisite debut novel by young Brazilian American author Gabriella Burnham, It Is Wood, It Is Stone is about women whose romantic and subversive entanglements reflect on class and colorism, sexuality, and complex, divisive histories.

Reviews

It Is Wood, It Is Stoneisa fever dream of a book;absolutely captivating and wonderfully destabilizing.I could not put it down. It is about uprootedness, class and color, and sex. It is about women on the vergeof collapse, of escape, of self-knowledgefailing and flailing and propping one another up. It is a book about the limits of propriety and the boundlessness of grace.Burnham is a writer of such remarkable insight, its impossible to believe this is her debut.Justin Torres, author ofWe the Animals

An absorbing and remarkably assured debut,It Is Wood, It Is Stonemarriestaut, cinematic suspensewithintimate, textureddomestic realism.Hits amajor refresh button on the genre of psychological thrillerand gives us somethingimmensely satisfyingand new.Jordy Rosenberg, author ofConfessions of the Fox

Intimate, unsparing, and compassionate,It Is Wood, It Is Stoneisunlike anything Ive read. Its a portrait of a woman adrift, but more than that, its a reflection on race, class, and privilege,rendered in beautifully observed and textured prosethat describes hazy internal weather with gimlet clarity.Gabriella Burnham writes with generosityand with sympathy for human imperfectionand captures so well the pain, envy, and expectations in life that make up each of our pasts, and linger into our present.Rachel Khong, author ofGoodbye, Vitamin

I would recommend this book based on the cover alone. Thankfully, the story inside isequally gorgeous, following three women in So Paulo: the anxious and listless Linda; her conflicted but steady maid, Marta; and Celia, an intoxicating artist with whom Linda leaves home.A lush depiction of privilege and power, sex and stability,It Is Wood, It Is Stoneis an elegant arrival of a new talent.Elle

Burnhamscaptivatingdebut is told in a surprisingly seamless second person. . . . Burnham dazzles by exploring the overlapping circles of need and care though tensions of race, privilege, sexuality, history, and memory. Thanks to Burnhams precise, vivid understanding of her characters, this stranger-comes-to-town novel has thefeel of a thriller as it illuminates the obligations of emotional labor. Burnham pulls off an electrifying twist on domestic fiction.Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Author Bio

Gabriella Burnham is a dual citizen of the United States and Brazil. Now a New York resident, she lived in Sa-o Paulo as a child and most of her family still lives there today. She holds an MFA in creative writing from The Writer's Foundry at St. Joseph's College and has been awarded fellowships to MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. She has worked as a reporter, a creative writing teacher, and in immigration law. It Is Wood, It Is Stone is her first novel.