My Life as a Silent Movie

A Novel

Fiction & Literature, Family Life, Contemporary Women, Literary
Cover of the book My Life as a Silent Movie by Jesse Lee Kercheval, Indiana University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jesse Lee Kercheval ISBN: 9780253010254
Publisher: Indiana University Press Publication: September 13, 2013
Imprint: Indiana University Press Language: English
Author: Jesse Lee Kercheval
ISBN: 9780253010254
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Publication: September 13, 2013
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Language: English

After a tragic loss, an American woman investigates her birth family in Paris: “The novel’s twists and turns are wonderfully unexpected” (Emma Straub, author of Modern Lovers).

In her early forties, Emma has recently lost her husband and daughter to a tragic auto accident. When her elderly aunt visits her Indiana home to provide comfort, and instead blurts out the news that Emma was adopted, a new kind of shock sets in.

Soon, a still-mourning Emma finds herself flying to Paris, where she will discover the twin brother whose existence she never knew about, and the identity of her birth parents—a White Russian film star of the 1920s and a French Stalinist. A story about identity and the relationship between art and life, My Life as a Silent Movie is “a beautiful, evocative novel [that] melds the magic of old movies with the redemptive power of family” (Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise).

“In this sharply drawn chronicle of grief, a woman reassembles her identity through her father’s art and her brother’s tenuous offer of a new life . . . Kercheval delves deeply into the rawest of emotions and the most wrenching of choices, richly detailing each twist and turn with grace.” —Kirkus Reviews

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

After a tragic loss, an American woman investigates her birth family in Paris: “The novel’s twists and turns are wonderfully unexpected” (Emma Straub, author of Modern Lovers).

In her early forties, Emma has recently lost her husband and daughter to a tragic auto accident. When her elderly aunt visits her Indiana home to provide comfort, and instead blurts out the news that Emma was adopted, a new kind of shock sets in.

Soon, a still-mourning Emma finds herself flying to Paris, where she will discover the twin brother whose existence she never knew about, and the identity of her birth parents—a White Russian film star of the 1920s and a French Stalinist. A story about identity and the relationship between art and life, My Life as a Silent Movie is “a beautiful, evocative novel [that] melds the magic of old movies with the redemptive power of family” (Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise).

“In this sharply drawn chronicle of grief, a woman reassembles her identity through her father’s art and her brother’s tenuous offer of a new life . . . Kercheval delves deeply into the rawest of emotions and the most wrenching of choices, richly detailing each twist and turn with grace.” —Kirkus Reviews

More books from Indiana University Press

Cover of the book Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Blue White Red by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Elemental Discourses by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Everyday Life in Russia by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book But What If There's No Chimney? by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Fierce Pretty Things by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book In Amma's Healing Room by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Well-Tempered Woodwinds by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Imagined Landscapes by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Jean-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Dinosaur Tracks by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book American Philanthropic Foundations by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Everyday Life in Central Asia by Jesse Lee Kercheval
Cover of the book Modernity, Freedom, and the African Diaspora by Jesse Lee Kercheval
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy