Leaving Lucy Pear

(Paperback)

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'Stunning language, raw emotion and profound wisdom' Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You

'Solomon's strong prose and fleet pacing consistently provide the essential pleasures of a good story well told' Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review

One night in 1917 Beatrice Haven creeps out of her uncle's house on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, leaves her newborn baby at the foot of a pear tree, and watches as another woman claims the child as her own. A gifted pianist bound for Radcliffe, Bea plans to leave her shameful secret behind and make a fresh start.

Ten years later, Prohibition is in full swing, post-WWI America is in the grips of rampant xenophobia, and Bea has returned to her uncle's house, seeking a refuge from her unhappiness. But the rum-running manager of the local quarry inadvertently reunites her with Emma Murphy, the headstrong Irish Catholic woman who has been raising her abandoned child - now a bright, bold, cross-dressing girl named Lucy Pear, with secrets of her own...

Reviews

LEAVING LUCY PEAR is that rare combination of stunning language, raw emotion, and profound wisdom that catches you up and wrings you out and yet somehow leaves you fuller than when you began - Celeste Ng

Solomon is an enormously gifted writer, and her penetrating tale will linger in your mind long after the last page has turned - Paula McLain

From the first page, I was under the spell of Anna Solomon's emotionally engaging novel about the devastating choices we make and the unexpected consequences they bring - Sue Monk Kidd

Anna Solomon writes with a poet's reverence for language and a novelist's ability to keep us turning the page. LEAVING LUCY PEAR is a gorgeous and engrossing meditation on motherhood, womanhood, and the sacrifices we make for love - J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Maine and The Engagements

A marvel of a novel, bursting with intelligence, insight, compassion, and truth. Anna Solomon is an extraordinarily gifted storyteller - Robin Black, author of Life Drawing

Author Bio

Anna Solomon is the author of The Little Bride and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, One Story, Ploughshares, Slate and MORE. Co-editor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers, Solomon previously worked as a journalist for National Public Radio. She was born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two children.