Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette

One of the books we're looking forward to is Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Little, Brown and Company). It is an August release. Set in Seattle, it's the story of a misplaced genius, Bernadette Fox, and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world - meaning this world. Our own Mary Benham raves "I loved it. It's refreshing, smart, funny and moving. In so many ways, and with great wit, it captures the tenor of our times."

This promo video shows what the author, Maria Semple, had to go through to get her book noticed by booksellers:)



Just how epistolary and misanthropic is Maria Semple book? Too much? Not enough? Order a copy here to find out!

Maria Semple's first novel, This One is Mine, was set in Los Angeles, where she also wrote for television shows including Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. She escaped from Los Angeles and lives with her family in Seattle, where this, her second novel, takes place. Here is what a few other authors had to say about Semple's new book.

"The characters in Where'd You Go, Bernadette may be in real emotional pain, but Semple has the wit and perspective and imagination to make their story hilarious. I tore through this book with heedless pleasure." -- Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom

"Brilliant, hilarious, endlessly inventive, and compulsively readable, Where'd You Go, Bernadette grabs you by the collar and never lets go. Semple is not only a masterful juggler, and an astute social critic, she is a magician!" -- Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here

"Where'd You Go, Bernadette is fresh and funny and accomplished, but the best thing about it was that I never had any idea what was going to happen next. It was a wild ride..." -- Kate Atkinson, author of Case Histories and Started Early, Took My Dog

"Maria Semple dissects the gory complexities of familial dysfunction with a deft and tender hand. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is a triumph of social observation and black comedy by a skillful chronicler of moneyed malaise." -- Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers

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