Molly Giles – författare

From acclaimed short story writer Molly Giles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated collection Rough Translations, comes this splendid debut novel about one woman''s spirited search for identity and meaning following her family''s disintegration. Set amid the woodsy affluence of Northern California, Iron Shoes incisively chronicles the coming-of-middle-age story of Kay Sorensen, who has lived her entire life in the shadow of her glamorous parents. When Kay hits forty, she is suddenly smacked with the realization that she is not the woman she wants to be -- and certainly not the woman her family wants her to be. Her emotionally detached father will never forgive her for dropping out of Juilliard at eighteen; her dramatic, showstopping mother will never comprehend how she turned out so ordinary; and her fastidious, self-controlled second husband will never accept her weakness for red meat, cigarettes, and alcohol. Worst of all, Kay cannot forgive herself for giving up on her dreams and settling -- for a husband she doesn''t love, for an amateurish church orchestra, for a dead-end job at a library bound to lose its funding. Unable to shake the feeling that she''s somehow stuck, Kay lives vicariously through her free-spirited friend Zabeth and pins her hopes for the future on Charles Lichtman, a beguiling stranger with whom she feels destined to have an affair. But when her mother''s illness -- seemingly feigned for as long as Kay can remember -- finally takes her life, Kay feels her ennui and stasis painfully give way to an unnerving helplessness. Losing a lifelong crutch, she is suddenly set adrift -- weightless, without a compass, and without hope. With her crystalline prose and seamless mixing of tender tragedy and laugh-out-loud humor, Molly Giles delivers a deeply moving exploration of a middle-aged woman who has never asked herself -- nor answered -- an honest question in her life. At once heartrending, hilarious, and wise, Iron Shoes is a mesmerizing debut novel.

Molly Giles's engaging collection of stories was the winner not only of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction but also of the 1985 San Francisco Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA) Award for Fiction and the 1986 Boston Globe Fiction Award. Many of the stories in Rough Translations have been anthologized and adapted for radio performance.A master of the complexities of language, Molly Giles writes of the missed connections in life and of the rough translations that we employ when we try to convey, through words and gestures, what we are thinking and what we want from our loved ones.

"A delight of a novel. Brilliant. All the characters developed in fascinating and unpredictable ways."

Leslie Daniels, author of Cleaning Nabokov''s House.

Molly Giles is the WINNER of a Pushcart Prize, The Flannery O'' Connor Prize and The Leapfrog Global Fiction Prize.

At forty-four, Kay Sorensen has quit drinking, smoking, and overeating, and she has almost quit reading self-help books about quitting drinking, smoking and overeating. She has divorced her deadbeat husband, finished college, and landed a job she loves directing a small branch of the county library.

But Kay still has one unconquered addiction: she just can’t say no to someone who needs her.

Praise for other books by Molly Giles

“What an irreverent, original voice!”

– Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

"Roll over, Evelyn Waugh, here''s Molly Giles. She''s the authentic satiric voice – a rare bird in American Letters – wicked, affectionate, and amused."

– Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun

"Molly Giles is the funniest writer of tragedy this country possesses." 

– Lucy Ferriss, author of The Misconceiver

"Molly Giles is like a dancer who can''t put a foot down wrong."– Cyra McFadden, author of The Serial