Available to readers for the first time since its initial publication, this is a wry and moving story by an American master.
The first thing I tell people is, I’m just an ordinary woman. I’m just like you.
Susanna has an incredible gift: she can heal ailments with just the touch of her hand. People travel from far and wide based on their faith in her abilities. But Susanna’s power only works in certain cases—it’s a semi-miracle. And as she grows into a woman, and tries to build a life of her own, her calling to fix and cure becomes more of a burden than she could ever have imagined. Why is she able to take people’s pain away sometimes, and not others, not when she needs to most of all? With the balm of time, and the wisdom of experience, Susanna must learn to live with the mysterious nature of her miracle.
“Not merely good . . . she is wickedly good.” —John Updike
“Tyler never falters in creating vivid characters whose weaknesses are both credible and compelling.” —The New Yorker
“To read a novel by Anne Tyler is to fall in love.” —People “There can hardly be a more American twentieth-century writer than Anne Tyler . . . Her prose is at once unpretentious and elegiac, and her imagery has staying power.” —New York Times Book Review
“Like a modern Jane Austen, Tyler creates small worlds [depicting] the intimate bonds of friendship and family.” —USA Today
“Anne Tyler is a magical writer.” —Los Angeles Times
“Every good book is really a dialogue between a writer and her readers . . . Tyler has proved that she is one of the most engaging conversationalists around.” —Washington Post “Anne Tyler has no peer. Her books just keep getting better and better.” —Anita Shreve “Tyler is an unsurpassed commentator on the subtle entanglements of relationships.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place.” –Newsday
“Anne Tyler is one of our national treasures.” —Jennifer Weiner
“A novelist who knows what a proper story is . . . Not only a good and artful writer, but a wise one as well.” —Newsweek
“One cannot reasonably expect fiction to be much better than this.” —Washington Post
"Tyler Reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives."—Wall Street Journal
ANNE TYLER was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of more than twenty novels. Her twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015. Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Available to readers for the first time since its initial publication, this is a wry and moving story by an American master.
The first thing I tell people is, I’m just an ordinary woman. I’m just like you.
Susanna has an incredible gift: she can heal ailments with just the touch of her hand. People travel from far and wide based on their faith in her abilities. But Susanna’s power only works in certain cases—it’s a semi-miracle. And as she grows into a woman, and tries to build a life of her own, her calling to fix and cure becomes more of a burden than she could ever have imagined. Why is she able to take people’s pain away sometimes, and not others, not when she needs to most of all? With the balm of time, and the wisdom of experience, Susanna must learn to live with the mysterious nature of her miracle.
“Not merely good . . . she is wickedly good.” —John Updike
Reviews
“Tyler never falters in creating vivid characters whose weaknesses are both credible and compelling.” —The New Yorker
“To read a novel by Anne Tyler is to fall in love.” —People “There can hardly be a more American twentieth-century writer than Anne Tyler . . . Her prose is at once unpretentious and elegiac, and her imagery has staying power.” —New York Times Book Review
“Like a modern Jane Austen, Tyler creates small worlds [depicting] the intimate bonds of friendship and family.” —USA Today
“Anne Tyler is a magical writer.” —Los Angeles Times
“Every good book is really a dialogue between a writer and her readers . . . Tyler has proved that she is one of the most engaging conversationalists around.” —Washington Post “Anne Tyler has no peer. Her books just keep getting better and better.” —Anita Shreve “Tyler is an unsurpassed commentator on the subtle entanglements of relationships.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place.” –Newsday
“Anne Tyler is one of our national treasures.” —Jennifer Weiner
“A novelist who knows what a proper story is . . . Not only a good and artful writer, but a wise one as well.” —Newsweek
“One cannot reasonably expect fiction to be much better than this.” —Washington Post
"Tyler Reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives."—Wall Street Journal
ANNE TYLER was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of more than twenty novels. Her twentieth novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2015. Her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
