Juno's Daughters
A Novel
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Love takes center stage when a single mother and her teenage daughters play Juno, Iris and Ceres in a summer production of The Tempest.
Jenny Alexander has sought refuge from a troubled past on a tiny, verdant island, off the coast of Washington state. Surrounded by the cold water of the Puget Sound, she does her best to raise her girls, innocent Frankie, and thrill-seeking Lilly, in a tight-knit community of eccentrics and dreamers.
The island bursts open each summer with the arrival of actors leading the annual Shakespeare production. A handsome thespian from New York reawakens Jenny to long-buried desires. As the intensity of rehearsals builds toward the live run of The Tempest, a potent mixture of actors, islanders and tourists, besotted by verse and swept up in the romance of the theater, spills the enchantment of the play into the lives of the players.
When Jenny finds her daughters caught up in a "brave new world" of love and heartbreak, she is ultimately thrust into a command performance that will resonate in all their lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Saffran's wonderfully immersive debut, a summer Shakespeare production brings new life, love, and drama to the sleepy Pacific Northwest island of San Juan. Islander Jenny Alexander finds her interest unexpectedly piqued by Andre, a handsome, charismatic actor taking part in this year's production. Jenny is not alone in her admiration; her beautiful 17-year-old daughter Lilly notices Andre as well. While younger daughter Frankie wrestles with typical adolescent traumas, the family of three get drawn into the world of The Tempest and begin to examine their lives in ways they never expected, with potentially profound results. Readers will find themselves caught up in the isolated island communities of the Puget Sound, which reflect the Shakespearean themes without losing their own unique expressiveness. Saffran's prose is delicate and precise, and her focus on the Bard reveals an obvious affection for the English language. She has created an excellent protagonist in Jenny, balancing her growth with that of her daughters, and takes care in giving them all enough room to grow.
