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‘Stunning language, raw emotion and profound wisdom’ Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You
‘Solomon’s strong prose and fleet pacing consistently provide the essential pleasures of a good story well told’ Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review
One night in 1917 Beatrice Haven creeps out of her uncle’s house on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, leaves her newborn baby at the foot of a pear tree, and watches as another woman claims the child as her own. A gifted pianist bound for Radcliffe, Bea plans to leave her shameful secret behind and make a fresh start.
Ten years later, Prohibition is in full swing, post-WWI America is in the grips of rampant xenophobia, and Bea has returned to her uncle’s house, seeking a refuge from her unhappiness. But the rum-running manager of the local quarry inadvertently reunites her with Emma Murphy, the headstrong Irish Catholic woman who has been raising her abandoned child – now a bright, bold, cross-dressing girl named Lucy Pear, with secrets of her own…
‘Solomon’s strong prose and fleet pacing consistently provide the essential pleasures of a good story well told’ Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review
One night in 1917 Beatrice Haven creeps out of her uncle’s house on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, leaves her newborn baby at the foot of a pear tree, and watches as another woman claims the child as her own. A gifted pianist bound for Radcliffe, Bea plans to leave her shameful secret behind and make a fresh start.
Ten years later, Prohibition is in full swing, post-WWI America is in the grips of rampant xenophobia, and Bea has returned to her uncle’s house, seeking a refuge from her unhappiness. But the rum-running manager of the local quarry inadvertently reunites her with Emma Murphy, the headstrong Irish Catholic woman who has been raising her abandoned child – now a bright, bold, cross-dressing girl named Lucy Pear, with secrets of her own…
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Reviews
Spanning the Great War and Prohibition and deftly delving into the social issues of the time, Leaving Lucy Pear is the perfect choice for readers who appreciate the rigor and richness of literary fiction
Ambitious and satisfying . . . [a] lushly written look at two women's haunting choices.
Solomon is a beautiful writer, and her prose brings people and scenes achingly alive. . . . Her characters' struggles with motherhood and identity would be compelling in any era.
Penetrating. . . . Repeatedly opting for the less predictable outcome, Solomon reaches resolutions marked with the same reflective maturity as the rest of this solidly absorbing novel. Slow-movement storytelling: fully-fleshed, compassionate, and satisfying
Solomon's strong prose and fleet pacing consistently provide the essential pleasures of a good story well told. . . . This is a book governed...by earnest empathy, a desire to give each character opportunities for growth and betterment, bravery and openness.
Leaving Lucy Pear is that rare combination of stunning language, raw emotion, and profound wisdom that catches you up and wrings you out and yet somehow leaves you fuller than when you began. In this tender new novel, Anna Solomon looks at our most fundamental relationships - between mothers, children, and lovers - with more compassion and grace than seems humanly possible
A marvel of a novel, bursting with intelligence, insight, compassion, and truth. Anna Solomon is an extraordinarily gifted storyteller
From the first page, I was under the spell of Anna Solomon's emotionally engaging novel about the devastating choices we make and the unexpected consequences they bring. This is a fine literary tapestry woven with beautiful language, complex characters, and a precise probing of human desires and demons
With poetic prose but a larger understanding of the precarious world of 1920s New England, Solomon proves herself as one of the most striking novelists of the day
Gorgeously moving . . . a dazzling exploration of the impact of roads untaken on motherhood, class, and gender. . . . Solomon expertly works on a large, mesmerizing canvas, with an almost dizzying array of characters, each moving the terrific drama of the book. . . . [She] renders each character so exquisitely complex, they could be the heroes of their own novels. . . . It's impossible to stop reading, because Solomon has made us care so much for all the characters, because she's fashioned a world so real, you can taste the salt spray and smell the heady fragrance of the ripe pears
Anna Solomon's novel invites you in with tons of atmosphere, from the foggy New England location to the 1920s culture to the gender politics. You'll get lost in this story, which feels truly new and fresh
Solomon's . . . razor-sharp prose scrapes her characters raw as she plants them deeply in the history and turmoil of 1920s New England. A beautifully rendered tale of discovering one's true nature. Highly recommended
In Anna Solomon's marvellously textured new novel, Cape Ann in the late 1920s thrums with the issues of the day. When two seemingly dissimilar women become bound to the same child, we're given a piercing and often profound look at motherhood, what it is and isn't, as well as the ways suffering makes and unmakes us all, sometimes many times over. Solomon is an enormously gifted writer, and her penetrating tale will linger in your mind long after the last page has turned
Anna Solomon writes with a poet's reverence for language and a novelist's ability to keep us turning the page. Leaving Lucy Pear is a gorgeous and engrossing meditation on motherhood, womanhood, and the sacrifices we make for love