* Coming July 16, 2013 * AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER *
A pitch-perfect, emotionally riveting debut novel about the fracturing of a marriage and a family—from an award-winning young writer with superb storytelling instincts.
AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER FROM
Simon and Schuster
Powell's
IndieBound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
and, of course, your local bookstore.
Life hasn't always been perfect, but for Abe and Cassandra Green, an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. He's a rheumatologist, piloting his coveted new sailboat. She's a sculptor, finally gaining modest attention for her art. Their beautiful daughter Elizabeth is heading to Harvard in the fall. Somehow, they've made life work. But then, out of nowhere, they plunge into a terrible fight. Cassandra has been unfaithful. In a fit of fury, Abe throws himself off the boat.
A love story that begins with the end of a marriage, The Violet Hour follows a modern family through past and present, from the funeral home in the Washington suburbs where Cassandra and her siblings grow up to the San Francisco public health clinic where Abe and Cassandra first meet. As the Greens navigate the passage of time—the expectations of youth, the concessions of middle age, the headiness of desire, the bitterness of loss—they must come to terms with the fragility of their intimacy, the strange legacies they inherit from their parents, and the kind of people they want to be. Exquisitely written, The Violet Hour is the deeply moving story of a family suddenly ripped apart, but then just possibly reborn.
Advance Praise for The Violet Hour
“Katherine Hill’s The Violet Hour reminds us that in every family mistakes are made—and redemption is possible. A wise, engrossing novel of familial love, betrayal, and forgiveness.” —Kate Walbert, author of A Short History of Women
"Like Sue Miller and Alice Hoffman, Katherine Hill limns the commonplace dreams and sorrows of the restless middle class. Ranging from post-grad San Francisco in the '70s to post-9/11 Manhattan, The Violet Hour is an old-fashioned family romance."
—Stewart O'Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster and Emily, Alone
“The Violet Hour is an altogether entrancing novel. Katherine Hill’s fresh, intelligent voice and extraordinary skill take an age-old theme—three generations of an unhappy family—and make it original, poignant and luminous. I was sorry when their story ended!” —Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Disturbances in the Field and Two-Part Inventions
"Katherine Hill's The Violet Hour is a brilliant meditation on the supreme mystery of marriage, haunted family legacies, and the fragility of happiness, all rendered in prose as kinetic and lyric as the sea. A debut that reads more like a master work, The Violet Hour is a revelatory and unforgettable novel." —Laura van den Berg, author of What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER FROM
Simon and Schuster
Powell's
IndieBound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
and, of course, your local bookstore.
Life hasn't always been perfect, but for Abe and Cassandra Green, an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. He's a rheumatologist, piloting his coveted new sailboat. She's a sculptor, finally gaining modest attention for her art. Their beautiful daughter Elizabeth is heading to Harvard in the fall. Somehow, they've made life work. But then, out of nowhere, they plunge into a terrible fight. Cassandra has been unfaithful. In a fit of fury, Abe throws himself off the boat.
A love story that begins with the end of a marriage, The Violet Hour follows a modern family through past and present, from the funeral home in the Washington suburbs where Cassandra and her siblings grow up to the San Francisco public health clinic where Abe and Cassandra first meet. As the Greens navigate the passage of time—the expectations of youth, the concessions of middle age, the headiness of desire, the bitterness of loss—they must come to terms with the fragility of their intimacy, the strange legacies they inherit from their parents, and the kind of people they want to be. Exquisitely written, The Violet Hour is the deeply moving story of a family suddenly ripped apart, but then just possibly reborn.
Advance Praise for The Violet Hour
“Katherine Hill’s The Violet Hour reminds us that in every family mistakes are made—and redemption is possible. A wise, engrossing novel of familial love, betrayal, and forgiveness.” —Kate Walbert, author of A Short History of Women
"Like Sue Miller and Alice Hoffman, Katherine Hill limns the commonplace dreams and sorrows of the restless middle class. Ranging from post-grad San Francisco in the '70s to post-9/11 Manhattan, The Violet Hour is an old-fashioned family romance."
—Stewart O'Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster and Emily, Alone
“The Violet Hour is an altogether entrancing novel. Katherine Hill’s fresh, intelligent voice and extraordinary skill take an age-old theme—three generations of an unhappy family—and make it original, poignant and luminous. I was sorry when their story ended!” —Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Disturbances in the Field and Two-Part Inventions
"Katherine Hill's The Violet Hour is a brilliant meditation on the supreme mystery of marriage, haunted family legacies, and the fragility of happiness, all rendered in prose as kinetic and lyric as the sea. A debut that reads more like a master work, The Violet Hour is a revelatory and unforgettable novel." —Laura van den Berg, author of What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
