Tara Conklin

Book Your Lunch with Tara Conklin on Friday, November 15th at noon at City Range. Tickets are $25 per person.

In Tara Conklin‘s debut novel, The House Girl (William Morrow, paperback, $14.99), Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite Manhattan law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that can make her career: find the “perfect plaintiff” to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for the descendants of American slaves.

An unexpected lead comes from Lina’s father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, who tells her about a controversy currently rocking the art world. Art historians now suspect that the revered paintings of Lu Anne Bell, an antebellum artist known for her humanizing portraits of slaves from her plantation Bell Creek, were actually the work of her house slave, Josephine. A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the firm’s lawsuit—if Lina can find one. But nothing is known about Josephine’s fate following Lu Anne Bell’s death in 1852. Did Josephine die at Bell Creek? Was she sold? Or did she escape? Searching for clues in old letters and plantation records, Lina begins to piece together Josephine’s story—a journey that leads her to question her own life, including the full story of her mother’s mysterious death twenty years before.

Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing tale of art and history, love and secrets explores what it means to repair a wrong, and ask whether truth is sometimes more important than justice.

About the author:

Tara Conklin has been writing stories since she could hold a pencil. After some professional forays into the worlds of non-profit organizations and corporate law firms, she is finally where she belongs: writing full-time and looking after her three children in the weather-challenged (but coffee rich) city of Seattle.

Tara was born in St. Croix, USVI and grew up in Massachusetts. She holds a BA in history from Yale University, a JD from New York University School of Law and a Master of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School (Tufts University).

Prior to law school, Tara worked in a variety of jobs in a variety of locales. She dealt cards at a casino in Costa Rica, planned events at a press center in Moscow, taught English at a school in Madrid and waited tables at a hotel in Montana. Her short fiction has appeared in The Bristol Prize Anthology and Pangea: An Anthology of Stories from Around the Globe. (fictionaddiction-sc)… (more)

Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action suit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves. Josephine is a seventeen-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm--an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell. Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, The house girl is a searing tale of art, history, love, and secrets that intertwines the stories of two remarkable women.

Tara Conklin has worked as a litigator in the New York and London offices of a major corporate law firm but now writes fiction full time. She received a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University, a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law, and a master's of law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. Tara's short fiction has appeared in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology and the Pangea International Anthology. Born in St. Croix, she grew up in Massachusetts and now lives with her family in Seattle.

Praise for The house girl

"Infused with ominous atmosphere and evocative detail...a dramatic montage of narrative and personal testimonies that depicts the grotesque routines of the slave trade, the deadly risks of hte Underground Railroad and the impossible choices that slaves and abolitionists faced."--Washington Post “Luminous . . . The rare novel that seamlessly toggles between centuries and characters and remains consistently gripping throughout. Powerful."--BookPage

"Conklin persuasively intertwines the stories of two women separated by time and circumstances but united by a quest for justice...Stretching back and forth across time and geography, this riveting tale is bolstered by some powerful universal truths."--Booklist

"Grabs you by the bonnet strings and starts running." --Entertainment Weekly

"A seamless juxtaposition of past and present, of the lives of two women, and of the redemptive nature of art and the search for truth and justice. Guaranteed to keep readers up long past their bedtimes."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Riveting"--Ebony

"Exquisite...Conklin takes us down a curious rabbit hole that drops us before a looking glass of uncomfortable truths about race, power, art, family, law and ethics...One of those books in which there's not one, two or three, but about ten good parts you'll want to read and reread."--Essence

Location: Street: 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW City: Albuquerque, Province: New Mexico Postal Code: 87107-3157 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, and told through the very different eyes of Lina and the seventeen-year-old house girl Josephine, this is a searing tale of art and history, love and secrets. From the brutality of plantation life to the perils of the Underground Railroad, and from the corridors of a modern corporate law firm to the sleek galleries of the New York art world, The house girl explores what it means to repair a wrong while asking whether the truth is sometimes more important than justice.

Tara Conklin has worked as a litigator in the New York and London offices of a major corporate law firm but now devotes her time to writing fiction. She received a BA in history from Yale University, a JD from New York University School of Law, and a Master of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School (Tufts University). Tara Conklin's short fiction has appeared in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology and the Pangea international anthology. Born in St. Croix, she grew up in Massachusetts and now lives with her family in Seattle.

Location: Street: 1200 11th St City: Bellingham, Province: Washington Postal Code: 98225-7015 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)