“Sumner brings a knowing, tongue-in-cheek sparkle to discussions of writing workshop chestnuts…never losing sight of the humanity of her characters and the unpredictable nature of reality.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Description
Aristotle “Aris” Thibodeau is twelve-and-a-half years old and destined for greatness. Ever since her father’s death, however, she’s been stuck in the small town of Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane’s floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor, not to mention coparenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money.
Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out in Write a Novel in Thirty Days!, she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the mom character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life—as in great literature—things might not work out exactly as planned.
How to Write a Novel is a brilliant satire of the modern family, at once endearing, hilarious, and bittersweet.
Praise
“Sumner brings a knowing, tongue-in-cheek sparkle to discussions of writing workshop chestnuts…never losing sight of the humanity of her characters and the unpredictable nature of reality.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“In the vein of Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project, Sumner’s quirky story about an unconventional family is charming and precocious, like Aris herself.” Library Journal
“A beautiful and accomplished novel by an extraordinarily gifted talent.” Jill McCorkle, author of Life after Life
“How a kid can help her broke, widowed, overwhelmed mom: write a novel!…Sweet, clever, and fun.” Kirkus Reviews
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Aug 3, 2015 |
| Release Date | August 4, 2015 |
| Release Date Machine | 1438646400 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | Literature & Fiction, Humor & Satire, Genre Fiction, Family Life, Coming of Age, Fiction - All, Fiction - Adult |
Author Bio
Melanie Sumner is the award-winning author of The Ghost of Milagro Creek, The School of Beauty and Charm, and Polite Society. Her short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, the New York Times, Seventeen, and many other magazines and anthologies. She is the recipient of a NEA Fellowship in fiction, a PEN America grant, a Whiting Award, and was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 1995. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Kennesaw State University, Georgia.
Narrator Bio
Katie Schorr is an actor and writer in New York. Her one-woman show, Take Me. Seriously, ran for six months at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and she performs throughout New York in new works at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Ars Nova, among other theaters. She has appeared on VH1’s Best Week Ever and costars in the web series Head in the Oven with Saturday Night Live actor Bill Hader. Her audiobook credits include narrating the novels in Alyson Noel’s bestselling Immortals series. Of her work on the series, AudioFile magazine has said, “Narrator Katie Schorr has a wonderfully raspy, youthful voice, which she puts to good effect on the cast of teenage characters.”
Overview
Aristotle “Aris” Thibodeau is twelve-and-a-half years old and destined for greatness. Ever since her father’s death, however, she’s been stuck in the small town of Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane’s floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor, not to mention coparenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money.
Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out in Write a Novel in Thirty Days!, she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the mom character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life—as in great literature—things might not work out exactly as planned.
How to Write a Novel is a brilliant satire of the modern family, at once endearing, hilarious, and bittersweet.
Reviews
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