At Briarwood School for Girls
A Novel
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The award-winning author of Eveningland “combines a coming-of-age tale, a ghost story and a meditation on history in his engrossing latest novel” (Minneapolis Star Tribune).
It’s 1994 and Lenore Littlefield is a junior at Briarwood School for Girls. She plays basketball. She hates her roommate. History is her favorite subject. She has told no one that she’s pregnant. Everything, in other words, is under control.
Meanwhile, Disney has announced plans to build a new theme park just up the road, a “Technicolor simulacrum of American History” right in the middle of one of the most history-rich regions of the country. If successful, the development will forever alter the character of Prince William County, VA, and have unforeseeable consequences for the school.
When the threat of the theme park begins to intrude on the lives of the faculty and students at Briarwood, secrets will be revealed and unexpected alliances will form. Lenore must decide whom she can trust—will it be a middle-aged history teacher struggling to find purpose in his humdrum life? A lonely basketball coach tasked with directing the school play? A reclusive playwright still grappling with her own Briarwood legacy? Or a teenage ghost equally adept at communicating with the living via telephone or Ouija board?
Following a cast of memorable characters as they reckon with questions about fate, history, and the possibility of happiness, At Briarwood School for Girls is “an inventive coming of age tale” (Southern Living).
“A stunning novel with a hint of the supernatural that’s sure to delight readers.”—Publishers Weekly
“Irresistible and satisfying.”—Christine Schutt, author of Florida: A Novel
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Knight (Eveningland) follows a cast of unhappily struggling characters in this superior boarding school novel set in 1994 Virginia. Junior Lenore Littlefield reels from her parents' messy divorce and has told no one at Briarwood School For Girls she is pregnant. As punishment for missing curfew too many times, she is drafted into the Drama Club's production of the reclusive alumna Eugenia Marsh's provocative play about a pregnant Briarwood student who communes with the ghost of a schoolgirl suicide victim. The play, incongruously directed by no-nonsense basketball coach Patricia Fink, aligns with real life as Lenore and her roommate use a Ouija board to contact the ghost haunting their dorm. Lenore confides her pregnancy in history teacher Lucas Bishop, who keeps his promise to remain silent but becomes a focus of ire from the administration when he presents vocal opposition to Disney's (real) plans to develop an American history amusement park near Manassas Battlefield. In the swirl of these crises, the characters make calm but radical plans to combat their personal disappointments. Knight's characters are memorable and nuanced a credit to his sharp, skillful writing. This is a stunning novel with a hint of the supernatural that's sure to delight readers.
