Myla Goldberg, author of the best-selling novel Bee Season, reads a passage from her latest, The False Friend. (Running Time: 13:19)
Celia and Djuna were the ringleaders of a highly competitive quintet of girls, caught in an escalating cycle of test, reward and punishment that peaked the afternoon they all walked home along a forbidden woodland road. Celia blocked out what happened, but everyone else in Jensenville assumed that Djuna was abducted that day, though neither Djuna nor her abductor was ever found.
Twenty years later, Celia and her boyfriend Huck are professionally successful, but their relationship has fallen into a stasis that Celia feels helpless to change. When Celia's memory of that terrible afternoon suddenly returns, she is forced to confront the part she played in her best friend's disappearance, and returns to Jensenville to confess.
In a hometown defined by what it was and can no longer be, Celia discovers that her unconscious avoidance of what really happened so long ago has had lasting repercussions. Her aging parents -- their love handicapped by a lifetime of reserve -- insist that she is innocent. Celia's childhood friends not only don't believe her, but insist that she should be apologizing for a completely different offense. Huck wants to be supportive, but can neither ignore all that contradicts Celia's version of the past, nor the damage it has inflicted on their shared life. Celia's search for the truth has startling and powerful consequences, resulting in a story that persists in the mind long after the last page has been turned.
Deeply resonant and emotionally charged, The False Friend explores the complexities of moral judgment, the fallibility of memory, and the adults that children become -- leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, and the lies to which we ultimately succumb.
About the Author:
Myla Goldberg: Myla Goldberg's best-selling first novel, Bee Season, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2000, winner of the Borders New Voices Prize, and a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN award. She sings and plays accordion and banjo in the Brooklyn art-punk band, The Walking Hellos. She writes and teaches in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband Jason Little and their two daughters.
Showing posts with label Myla Goldberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Myla Goldberg. Show all posts
10/21/10
AND THE WINNER IS: The False Friend by Myla Goldberg
bbricke@
tabbylewis@
An email has been sent to the lucky people named above (first part of their email address in case my note ends up in spam). They have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
Thanks to all who entered.
Didn't win? Order your copy from my Amazon link
10/5/10
ROCKTOBER! The Decemberists 'Song for Myla Goldberg' live
How cool is this?
The Village Voice says:
...Tthe Decemberists' Colin Meloy wrote a song about Myla Goldberg's pretty hands and dangly limbs, but she "must have had a brain lesion or something," because she didn't remember ever meeting him. "I'm bad," she says. "It turns out we talked at a reading. But it's not like he said, 'Hello, I'm Colin Meloy, the lead singer of the Decemberists.' "
It is nice to see the literary world collide with the music one, although I think it happens more often than we realize.
GIVEAWAY! REVIEW: The False Friend by Myla Goldberg
Description
From the bestselling author of Bee Season comes an astonishingly complex psychological drama with a simple setup: two eleven-year-old girls, best friends and fierce rivals, go into the woods. Only one comes out . . .
Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One afternoon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened.
The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia’s unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they’ve been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both.
Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don’t believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can’t blind him to all that contradicts Celia’s version of the past.
Celia’s desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become—leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.
Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One afternoon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened.
The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia’s unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they’ve been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both.
Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don’t believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can’t blind him to all that contradicts Celia’s version of the past.
Celia’s desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become—leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.
About the Author
MYLA GOLDBERG is the author of the bestselling Bee Season, which was a New York Times Notable Book in 2000, later made into a film; and Wickett’s Remedy. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.Details
- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (October 5, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385527217
- ISBN-13: 978-0385527217
LOVED IT
I adored Bee Season and it was one of the best film adaptations I have seen. So when given the opportunity to read this one, I jumped at it. Goldberg does a fabulous job bringing to life Celia and the horror she feels at her friend, Djuna, disappearing. She blocks the memory and a lie becomes the truth. Goldberg's stories all have an unusual twist somewhere and this one won't disappoint. It will make you say, "oh, that explains everything", but you will still wonder about it. It may keep you thinking about it for awhile. I really enjoy the author's use of words. Every word fits perfectly and sometimes I am always lost when I try to write reviews for books like this, that just hit you emotionally.
WANT TO WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK?
Contest is open to anyone with a US or Canadian mailing address (no PO Boxes)
Winner will be chosen by Random.org on 10.20.10
Winner will have 48 hours to respond to email or a new winner will be chosen.
This giveaway is sponsored by DoubleDay and 2 books will be available.
Only one winner per household address!
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