'Remarkable' Charmaine Wilkerson
'Heartbreaking' Ericka Waller
'Moving and hopeful' Imogen Crimp
'Beautifully crafted' Ania Card
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A sweeping and emotional debut from a dazzling new voice - for fans of The Paper Palace, The Dutch House and Betty.
Coming of age in 1940s England, Alice's life is thrown into chaos under the shadow of the war. Forced to let go of her hopes and dreams, she finds herself uprooted to America and a life she never could have imagined.
Decades later, it is the 1990s and Alice's granddaughter Marnie is living out of a worn-out Chevy Nova, running heroin and cocaine along the New England coastline. Yet she carries with her memories of a nurtured childhood in hardscrabble Rhode Island, where all the disappointments of her young parents were eclipsed by her grandmother's love.
Spanning six decades and two continents, from the shores of WWII England to the underside of 1990s America, JUNCTION OF EARTH AND SKY unfolds -in multiple timelines -the enduring bond of grandmother and granddaughter, plagued by the past but determined to find their place in the world against all the odds. Susan Buttenwieser (Author)
Susan Buttenwieser is the author of the short story collection, We Were Lucky With the Rain (Four Way Books) and she has been awarded several fiction fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and she has taught creative writing in New York City schools, libraries, homeless shelters, juvenile detention facilities and at a women's maximum-security prison. Junction of Earth and Sky is her first novel.
Marnie swam at dawn in the saltwater pond floating on her back while nearby a father was fishing with his son in a rowboat.
Marnie could have stayed there all day listening to the man tell his son fishing stories in his soft, gentle voice.
After she had a shower, she saw them at a picnic table with the mom and a baby, eating the breakfast they'd prepared over a small campfire.
A feeling of total loneliness had come over her and she ran to the car, crying the whole way. Alice, fifteen years old and evacuated to a cruel home in the north of England, dreams of a better future and a loving family. While the Second World War rages, a brutal assault decides Alice's fate and she finds herself banished to America.
1993, Marnie, a struggling drug addict, riding the highways of America dealing and stealing, dreams of her past, when she was happy and secure in the love of her grandmother, Alice.
Spanning six decades and two continents, Junction of Earth and Sky is the spellbinding story of two women, grandmother and granddaughter, plagued by the whims of fate and at times, a darkness that seems impossible to shake.
But Alice's powerful love for Marnie resonates throughout the young woman's journey towards redemption in this spellbinding story of hope against the odds. A breathless read spanning timelines and continents featuring lives lived, loves found and lost, and one family's struggle for redemption. Susan Buttenwieser is well placed to talk about the books themes (intergenerational trauma, addiction, survival) in relation to the wider world and the work she does outside of being an author. UK/US narrative. World War II blitz setting. This is a book of remarkable insight and empathy. The novel's kaleidoscopic view of one family over six generations drew me right into the characters' lives and wouldn't let me go. I will be thinking about the special bond between Alice and Marnie for a long time Written in precise and vivid prose, Junction of Earth and Sky combines the emotional breadth of an epic with the attention to specific, everyday detail of a short story collection. A moving and hopeful novel about intergenerational trauma and the struggle to break the chain A beautifully crafted story of family, lost loves and resilience. Weaving generations, storylines and continents, Buttenwieser deftly captu
