Winner of the 2014 Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Award |
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The Things We Save
Kirkus Reviews calls it a "well-plotted, lyrical novel filled with the harsh emotions of a family torn apart by death."
Booklist Online says "readers will be drawn into this intense and compelling family saga and rewarded with an emotionally satisfying conclusion."
BookLife Prize for Fiction, Publishers Weekly says "Zienty grabs hold of the reader from the beginning and never lets go..."
Joanne Zienty's debut novel, a coming-0f-age family saga set in the ever-fascinating city of Chicago, is now available on Amazon.com (trade paperback and Kindle), independent book stores such as Anderson's, and Barnes and Noble. It is also available on a variety of e-books formats, including Nook, Kobo, and iPad, if you are into that sort of thing. Or ask for it at your local library! Find a brief synopsis and a book discussion guide below.
Booklist Online says "readers will be drawn into this intense and compelling family saga and rewarded with an emotionally satisfying conclusion."
BookLife Prize for Fiction, Publishers Weekly says "Zienty grabs hold of the reader from the beginning and never lets go..."
Joanne Zienty's debut novel, a coming-0f-age family saga set in the ever-fascinating city of Chicago, is now available on Amazon.com (trade paperback and Kindle), independent book stores such as Anderson's, and Barnes and Noble. It is also available on a variety of e-books formats, including Nook, Kobo, and iPad, if you are into that sort of thing. Or ask for it at your local library! Find a brief synopsis and a book discussion guide below.
The Things We Save
A broken 45 rpm record held together with adhesive tape, a fading stack of Polaroids, a cobalt blue perfume bottle, and a braid of human hair … these are just some of the things Claire Sokol keeps stashed in an old Marshall Field’s gift box. But how did they get there and what do they signify? If these relics could talk, what stories would they tell? The tale of a child torn between the bitter sermons of a troubled, troublesome mother and the honeyed praise of the beautiful, sophisticated woman who just might be her fairy godmother? Of an innocent girl and boy wandering lost in a dark, forbidding forest of adult lies and deceit? Of a young woman fighting to save a beloved father from his worst enemy – himself? Of a young man’s death, a tragedy from which to flee or a mystery to finally solve?
The Things We Save, as it arcs across the decades from 1969 to 1999, tells the story of the ways, both subtle and brutal, that a Chicago family falls apart and the intimate struggle to put what remains back together. It asks provocative questions about the nature of love, the corrosive effects of envy and guilt, and the limits of forgiveness. The Things We Save is for anyone who has ever slammed out a door with the vow to never return, only to find his or her way back home again.
The Things We Save, as it arcs across the decades from 1969 to 1999, tells the story of the ways, both subtle and brutal, that a Chicago family falls apart and the intimate struggle to put what remains back together. It asks provocative questions about the nature of love, the corrosive effects of envy and guilt, and the limits of forgiveness. The Things We Save is for anyone who has ever slammed out a door with the vow to never return, only to find his or her way back home again.
Book Discussion Guide
You can download a book discussion guide in PDF form below.
| things_we_save_discussion_guide.pdf |