The Sweetest Fruits - A Novel

Zusatztext Praise for The Sweetest Fruits : A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Winner of the Binghamton Center for Writers’ John Gardner Fiction Prize "A marvelous mixture of fact and imagination . . . Truong’s lush style is on gorgeous display in these pages, her imagery evoking hidden emotional depths . . . While the lives, loves and adventures of Lafcadio Hearn hold center stage in this novel, these are set off by a rich brocade of social critiques — of slavery, colonization and the repression of women. With great generosity and compassion, Truong explores the difference between writing and telling stories, with the question of who gets to speak and who remains silent." — Diana Abu-Jaber, The Washington Post  ? "A delicate, impressionistic tale . . . Truong is exploring personal memory in all its creative and contradictory subjectivity . . . [ The Sweetest Fruits ] is propelled not by action but by the retrospective piecing together that happens once a relationship is over. Spurred by nostalgia, regret, longing and anger, each woman examines her memories . . . As Setsu observes, 'to tell another’s story is to bring him to life,' but here it’s the women who achieve that feat rather than the man who connected them."  —Priya Parmar, The New York Times Book Review "I've been addicted to Truong's writing ever since her debut, The Book of Salt , a work of historical fiction incorporating real people that felt—unlike much of that genre—lush, invigorating, and real. Her third novel fictionalizes Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn but through the eyes of only his mother and his two wives—one a freed American slave, the other his Japanese translator." —Boris Kachka, New York Magazine "Monique Truong’s nomadic tale is a look at the storied life of 19th century writer and expeditionist Lafcadio Hearn through the eyes of the women who knew him best. Sweeping in scope and written in tight, precise language, it’s a read-into-the-night pick."  — Marie Claire "Truong transforms author Lafcadio Hearn’s biography into a revelatory mystery by giving voice to three women who shaped him." —Jane Ciabattari, BBC "Mesmerizing . . . Truong focuses on the mostly neglected women in Hearn’s life, imagining the struggles and sorrows of his mother, and, looking at him through the eyes of his two wives, imparts searing counterpoints to the iconic Hearn . . .  In going beyond the knowable and guiding us through the imaginable, Truong takes the measure of the man through his women in coruscating prose."  —Jeff Kingston,  Los Angeles Review of Books "Monique Truong brings to life brave, spirited women left out of a history that privileges what Toni Morrison called 'the master narrative.' In doing so, she humanizes rather than diminishes Hearn. Through disparate, often contradictory narratives, she invites further investigation: keep telling it slant, whatever it takes, to reveal, as Dickinson writes, 'truth’s superb surprise'—that sweetest of all fruits. A worthy endeavor at any time, it’s an especially urgent one today."  — World Literature Today “A captivating work of historical fiction that flung me into three very different places in time around the world . . . [I was] so impressed with Truong’s ability to write in such disparate voices and bring together a really original novel.” —Cathy Erway, HuffPost "An absolutely brilliant intersection of fiction and history, politics and culture, love and loss." — Hyphen Magazine "Truong’s innovative narration gives us the stories of three incredible women right at the moments those stories are being repurposed or lost. Even more importantly, it shows us those erasures in process. . . . Truong’s genius for finding joy and life amidst trauma and dislocat...

Product details

• Authors: Monique Truong
• Publisher: Viking USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9780735221017
• ISBN: 978-0-7352-2101-7
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 210 mm x 19 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature