Our Narrow Hiding Places, Ecco (2024)
Preorder now! On sale — 8/13/2024
For fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale: an elderly woman recounts her Dutch family’s survival during the final years of Nazi occupation, shedding new light on old secrets that rippled through subsequent generations.
Eighty-year-old Mieke Geborn’s life is one of quiet routine. Widowed for many years, she enjoys the view from her home on the New Jersey shore, visits with friends, and tai chi at the local retirement community. But when her beloved grandson, Will, and his wife, Teru, show up for a visit, things are soon upended. Their marriage is threatening to unravel, and Will has questions for his grandmother—questions about family secrets that have been lost for decades and are now finally rising to the surface.
But telling Will the truth involves returning to the past, and to Mieke’s childhood in coastal Holland. There, in the last years of World War II, she survived the Hunger Winter, a brutal season when food and heat were cut off and thousands of Dutch citizens starved. Her memories weave together childhood magic and the madness of history, and carry readers from the windy beaches of The Hague to the dark cells of a concentration camp, through the bends of eel-filled rivers, and, finally, to the story of Will’s father, absent since Will’s childhood.
Our Narrow Hiding Places is a sweeping story of survival and of the terrible cost of war—and a reminder that sometimes the traumas we inherit come along with a resilience we never imagined.
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Les Idéalistes, Le Cherche Midi (2022)
Preorder now! On sale in France, 11/03/2022
Available exclusively in French.
“An impressive novel of mastery, in the tradition of Tom Wolfe, which combines 100 years of American history and the story of an exceptional friendship.
One day of idleness, a young unemployed history teacher pushes the door of an ordinary office... and sees his life change forever. In a few moments, he goes from apathy to passion, from hesitation to risk, from timidity to flamboyance. In this soulless room is indeed Waldo Woodson, the speech manager of Congresswoman Teddy Ruiz. Cultivated, unpredictable, fascinating, Woodson irremediably upsets the rules of the game, and always demands more from existence at the risk of losing his health - but never his time. Together, they write the speeches and weave a friendship made up of admiration and rivalry.
But Waldo Woodson's confidence conceals flaws, disappointments and a secret that painstakingly eat away at his energy and turn his formidable talent into a double-edged sword. Of those that we turn against ourselves.
A broad and prodigiously constructed novel that combines the story of an exceptional friendship, love drama and political fiction. The author is in line with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Wolfe and Joseph O'Neill who excel both in the analysis of society and in that of the intimacy of the characters.”
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The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, Viking/Penguin (2013)
“As early as he can remember, the narrator of this remarkable novel has wanted to become a writer. From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma’s hopelessly unreliable—yet hopelessly earnest—narrator will be haunted by the success of his greatest friend and literary rival, the brilliant Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. A profound exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling, this delightful picaresque tale heralds Jansma as a bold, new American voice.”
2014 PEN/Hemingway Award, Honorable Mention
Barnes & Noble Discover Pick
American Booksellers Association “Indie Next” Pick
Available at your local bookstore and on:
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Why We Came to the City, Viking/Penguin (2016)
Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, Longlist
Junior Library Guild Selection
“December, 2008. A heavy snowstorm is blowing through Manhattan and the economy is on the brink of collapse, but none of that matters to a handful of guests at a posh holiday party. Five years after their college graduation, the fiercely devoted friends at the heart of this richly absorbing novel remain as inseparable as ever: editor and social butterfly Sara Sherman, her troubled astronomer boyfriend George Murphy, loudmouth poet Jacob Blaumann, classics major turned investment banker William Cho, and Irene Richmond, an enchanting artist with an inscrutable past.”
Available at your local bookstore and on:
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New York Odyssée, Rue Fromentin/Livre de Poche (2017)
New York Odyssée is the prize-winning French translation of Why We Came to the City by Sophie Troff
“Irene, Jacob, William, George et Sara, inséparables depuis l’université, viennent de s’installer à New York. Ils ont vingt-cinq ans, sillonnent la ville, naviguent entre fêtes et premiers jobs. Mais la maladie d’Irene bouleverse tout et donne une direction nouvelle à leur existence.
Avec New York Odyssée, Kristopher Jansma signe un magistral portrait de groupe avant de basculer vers le drame intime de chacun. Un roman ironique, juste et sensible sur le deuil et l’amitié.”
Prix des Lecteurs, Finalist
Prix du Livre de Voyage Urbain du Figaro, Winner
Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, Long List
Prix America, Finalist
Prix du Livre Etranger France Inter-Journal du Dimanche, Finalist
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