Margot Livesey – författare

The resonant story of a young woman's struggle to take charge of her own future, The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a modern take on a classic story-Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre-that will fascinate readers of the Gothic original and fans of modern literary fiction alike, with its lyrical prose, robust characters, and abundant compassion. Set in early 1960s Scotland, this breakout novel from award-winning author Margot Livesey is a tale of determination and spirit that, like The Three Weissmanns of Westport and A Thousand Acres, spins an unforgettable new story from threads of our shared, still-living literary past. "Gemma is real-it's as simple as that. And through her eyes we see step by step what it means ...to take possession of one's own life." -David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

The New York Times–bestseller: an “exceptionally well-plotted, well-crafted, innovatively interpreted modern twist” on Jane Eyre (The Boston Globe).The resonant story of a young woman’s struggle to take charge of her own future, The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a modern take on a classic story—Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. With its lyrical prose, robust characters, and abundant compassion, it will fascinate readers of the Gothic original and fans of modern literary fiction alike. Set in early 1960s Scotland, this breakout novel from award-winning author Margot Livesey is a tale of determination and spirit that, like The Three Weissmanns of Westport and A Thousand Acres, spins an unforgettable new story from threads of our shared, still-living literary past.“Sure to delight the multitudes of Brontë fans, and the multitudes of fans that Livesey deserves.” —The Boston Globe“A suspenseful, curl-up-by-the-fire romance with a willfully determined protagonist who’s worthy of her literary role model.” —People

A deluxe Harper Perennial Legacy Edition, with an introduction from Margot Livesey, award-winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy A compelling historical novel of two families wrestling with questions of honor, class, loyalty, democracy, and independence during the American Revolution, now available in a Harper Perennial Modern Classics Legacy Edition. In The Linwoods, Catharine Maria Sedgwick illuminates the American character and explores issues of civic virtue and national identity in the early republic, through the lives of two families: the Linwoods, dutiful loyalists, and the Lees, passionate revolutionaries. At the novel's heart is Isabella Linwood, a bright and independent young woman who will transform from a proud Tory to ardent Rebel, challenging not only British rule but its accepted social, economic, and political institutions, including the aristocracy, slavery, and patriarchal authority. This Legacy Edition features a lush design and French flaps.

"Consuming… . . . Explores themes of honesty and understanding by showing the impact that obsessions—grief, rapacity—can have on a marriage." -The New YorkerDonald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optometrist in suburban Boston, he is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children and to each other. Then Mercury—a gorgeous young thoroughbred arrives at Windy Hill and everything changes.Everyone is struck by Mercury''s beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv begins to dream of competing again, embracing the ambitions that she had harbored, and relinquished, as a young woman. Her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession.Donald is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed. By the time he does, it is too late to stop the catastrophic collision of Viv''s ambitions and his own myopia.At once a tense psychological drama and a taut emotional thriller, Mercury is a riveting tour de force that showcases this "searingly intelligent writer at the height of her powers" (Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author)."You''ll be glued to the page." -People, Pick of the Week"Like the recent blockbusters Gone Girl and Fates and Furies, Mercury gives us a marriage from alternating perspectives. Unlike those books, there is no looming gimmick or twist. The parties involved agree on what has happened. The question is whether or not their love can survive it." -New York Times

"[An] exquisite . . . whodunit. . . . But the real mysteries lie . . . compellingly with the characters who are witnesses to the crime. . . . quiet, observant . . . cinematic." —New York Times Book ReviewOne September afternoon in 1999, teenagers Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan Lang are walking home from school when they discover a boy lying in a field, bloody and unconscious. Thanks to their intervention, the boy''s life is saved. In the aftermath, all three siblings are irrevocably changed. Matthew, the oldest, becomes obsessed with tracking down the assailant, secretly searching the local town with the victim''s brother. Zoe wanders the streets of Oxford, looking at men, and one of them, a visiting American graduate student, looks back. Duncan, the youngest, who has seldom thought about being adopted, suddenly decides he wants to find his birth mother. Overshadowing all three is the awareness that something is amiss in their parents'' marriage. Over the course of the autumn, as each of the siblings confronts the complications and contradictions of their approaching adulthood, they find themselves at once drawn together and driven apart.The Boy in the Field showcases Margot Livesey''s unmatched ability to "tell her tale masterfully, with intelligence, tenderness, and a shrewd understanding of all our mercurial human impulses" (Lily King, author of Euphoria)."Luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered." —Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River"Filled with dazzling insights and beauty." —People Magazine"[Livesey''s novels are] successful at making the rich subtext of feeling, memory, and difficult life decisions mulled over, the main event of her stories." —New York Journal of Book"Powerfully affecting." —Kirkus, starred review"A masterful tapestry of emotion and action." —Booklist, starred review

Following the acclaimed Criminals comes a spellbinding new novel that confirms Margot Livesey''s place "right up there," as Liz Smith wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "in the realm of P. D. James and the esteemed Patricia Highsmith."What if -- by stroke of fortune -- you could start afresh, could wipe away that catastrophic blunder in your past? And to what lengths would you go to establish that in fact you''d done nothing wrong at all? After an accident robs Hazel of three years'' worth of memory, just such an opportunity is granted to Jonathan, undone by his betrayal of this woman, whom he professes to love above all. While he begins to rewrite their history, two other misfits -- an American sojourner and a luckless English actress -- knock about London, each of them haunted by indelible memories they would much rather forget. Eventually their hopes of redemption draw them toward Jonathan''s house, where Hazel has become a virtual prisoner . . .Replete with compelling characters and extravagantly plotted, The Missing World weaves together these separate quests for love and truth in a manner both thrilling and, ultimately, revealing about our imperfect lives.

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, an unforgettable novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in nineteenth-century Scotland“Bewitching and seductive.” —Rebecca Makkai, author of I Have Some Questions for You • “Magical.” —Allegra Goodman, author of Sam • “This book is a cold, clear, perfect lake." —Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster WildsGrowing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it.Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance.Luminous and transporting, The Road from Belhaven “is a marvel… a story as thrilling as it is thoughtful, one animated by life’s fundamental question: How do we change?” (Anthony Marra, author of Mercury Pictures Presents)

A decent, harried young banker travels north to Scotland and his mysteriously troubled sister. A single mother struggles to make a home for her family in a society she only vaguely comprehends. A baby girl is abandoned in a bus station and picked up by a stranger. A caller leaves threatening messages. Brilliantly structured and tense as a thriller, CRIMNINALS shows how the best intentions can have the worst results - and how families pull together, form themselves anew, and occasionally, tear apart.

A Kirkus Reviews 'Best Fiction of 2016' selectionA Bookpage 'Best Books of 2016' selectionA Barnes and Noble 'Best Books of 2016' selectionA Seattle Times 'Best Books of 2016' selection'Mercury is as luminous, unforgettable, and perfectly rendered as only Margot Livesey can accomplish.' Dennis LehaneAn optometrist in suburban Boston, Donald is sure that he and his wife, Viv, are both devoted to their two children and each other. Then Mercury - a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past - arrives at Viv's stables, and as she begins to ride him, dreams she had harboured and relinquished for the sake of her family are rekindled; dreams that soon morph into consuming desire. As her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession, it seems there is nothing - and no one - she will allow to stop her this time around.Though Donald may have 20/20 vision, he is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed, and how much these changes threaten their quiet, secure world. But by the time he does, it is too late to stop the catastrophic collision of Viv's determined ambitions ...'Margot Livesey is a searingly intelligent writer at the height of her powers.' Jennifer Egan