Amy and Isabelle
A Novel
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4.2 • 451 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The debut novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge evokes a teenager's alienation from her distant mother, and a parent's rage at the discovery of her daughter's secrets.
“One of those rare, invigorating books that take an apparently familiar world and peer into it with ruthless intimacy, revealing a strange and startling place.”—The New York Times Book Review
Before there was Olive Kitteridge, there was Amy and Isabelle…
In most ways, Isabelle and Amy are like any mother and her 16-year-old daughter, a fierce mix of love and loathing exchanged in their every glance. That they eat, sleep, and work side by side in the gossip-ridden mill town of Shirley Falls—a location fans of Strout will recognize from her critically acclaimed novel, The Burgess Boys—only increases the tension. And just when it appears things can't get any worse, Amy's sexuality begins to unfold, causing a vast and icy rift between mother and daughter that will remain unbridgeable unless Isabelle examines her own secretive and shameful past.
A Reader's Guide is included in this powerful first novel by the author who brought Olive Kitteridge to millions of readers.
Customer Reviews
Loved.
Beautifully written, insightful study of women’s experiences
Too much “filler” copy.
Too much about the seasons, the weather and scenery. A bit too much jumping around from one scene/time to-another.
Some parts were really good, but overall it was kind of headache to get through
Amy & Isabelle
Elizabeth Strout's fluid style captures the complex relationship of a mother and daughter coming-of -age in Maine. I must note that the scene in which Mother angrily chops off her daughter's hair seems to be directly lifted from "Mommie Dearest"; whether Strout is aware of this is unknown. Otherwise, a nice read.