Margot Livesey

Please join us on Sunday, October 22 at 3pm, when Margot Livesey presents her new collection of essays, The Hidden Machinery. The event is free and open to the public; there will be time for Q&A and book signing after her talk.

In The Hidden Machinery, Margot Livesey offers a masterclass for those who love reading literature and for those who aspire to write it. Through close readings, arguments about craft, and personal essay, Livesey delves into the inner workings of fiction and considers how our stories and novels benefit from paying close attention to both great works of literature and to our own individual experiences. Her essays range in subject matter from navigating the shoals of research to creating characters that walk off the page, from how Flaubert came to write his first novel to how Jane Austen subverted romance in her last one. As much at home on your nightstand as it is in the classroom, The Hidden Machinery will become a book readers and writers return to over and over again.

Margot Livesey is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Mercury, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street, Banishing Verona, Eva Moves the Furniture, The Missing World, Criminals, and Homework. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vogue, and the Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a professor of fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. (TooFondOfBooks)… (more)

Join Nan Cuba and Margot Livesey as they celebrate Cuba's debut novel, Body and Bread, one of "Ten Titles to Pick Up Now" in O Magazine and "15 New Books for Your Beach Bag" in the Huffington Post. Cuba unearths the power of family legacies and the indelible imprint of loss on all our lives. Years after her brother Sam’s suicide, Sarah Pelton remains unable to fully occupy her world without him. As she assembles the artifacts of her family’s history in East Texas in the hope of discovering her own future, images from her work as an anthropologist — images of sacrifice, ritual, and rebirth — haunt her waking dreams. Nan will read an excerpt from the book and then engage in a conversation with Margot. Nan Cuba received her MFA in fiction from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, is the founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit literary center, was twice the runner-up for the Dobie Paisano Fellowship, and received a Fundación Valparaiso Residency Grant in Mojácar, Spain. She is currently an associate professor of English at Our Lady of the Lake University. As an investigative journalist, she reported on the causes of extraordinary violence in publications such as LIFE and D Magazine. Her stories, poems, and reviews have appeared in Quarterly West,Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry & Prose (runner-up for the journal’s fiction award), the Bloomsbury Review, and the Harvard Review, among others. She is coeditor of Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers & Artists. Margot Livesey's acclaimed novels include The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street (winner of the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award) and EVA Moves the Furniture. She lives in the Boston area and is a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College.

Location: Street: Porter Square Shopping Center Additional: 25 White Street City: Cambridge, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 02140 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

The Northshire Women Read group will meet at the Inn at Manchester on Monday, February 11th to discuss, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, by Margo Livesey.

Our reading group is now filled with enthusiastic readers, but we would love to invite you to join us at a later date. Please email Nancy, nscheemaker@northshire.com, to join a waiting list.

Location: Street: 4869 Main St Additional: City: Manchester Center, Province: Vermont Postal Code: 05255 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

You’re cordially invited to attend our every third Thursday of the month Book Club.

This month's book is The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey.

Moderated by longtime bookseller Michelle and events gal Suzanne, our book club is multi-generational, friendly, casually well read, and one of the best groups to talk about a book with we've ever met!

As always, our club books will be discounted 10% every month. Additionally, if your book club buys 3 or more copies of one title, we’ll happily discount any and all other book club’s titles too!

Location: Street: Secret Garden Additional: 2214 NW Market St City: Seattle, Province: Washington Postal Code: 98107-4024 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

“The fabulous Margot Livesey has written a book steeped in remote landscapes, secret histories, and great love. Orphan Gemma is a modern-day Jane Eyre, thoroughly engaging and bracingly unsentimental. The prose is meticulous, the tale transporting. Trust me, you will love this book.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and Wit’s End

The Flight of Gemma Hardy, is an inventive reimagining of the Jane Eyre story. Set in mid-twentieth century Scotland, Livesey’s atmospheric homage to Brontë’s literary masterpiece traces the misfortunes and misadventures of a strong-willed orphan girl who finally comes into her own.

Margot Livesey is the acclaimed author of the novels The House on Fortune Street, Homework,Criminals, The Missing World, EVA Moves the Furniture, and Banishing Verona. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Born in Scotland, Livesey currently lives in the Boston area and is a writer in residence at Emerson College.

Location: Street: 4869 Main St Additional: City: Manchester Center, Province: Vermont Postal Code: 05255 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Bestselling author Margot Livesey will speak about her latest novel, the modern day journey of a young woman loosely based on the story of Jane Eyre, The Flight of Gemma Hardy.

Margot Livesey is the acclaimed author of the novels The House on Fortune Street, Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture and Banishing Verona. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Livesey was born in Scotland and grew up on the edge of the Highlands. She currently lives in the Boston area and is a distinguished writer-in-residence at Emerson College.

Location: Street: 50 Water Street Additional: Tannery Mill Bldg 1 City: Newburyport, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 01950 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

The Flight of Gemma Hardy

In her new novel, acclaimed writer Margot Livesey reimagines the story of Jane Eyre. Set in remote Scotland in the mid-twentieth century, The Flight of Gemma Hardy (HarperCollins), traces the misfortunes and misadventures of a strong-willed orphan girl who finally comes into her own. Livesey, author of six previous novels, including 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award–winning The House on Fortune Street, is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

“The fabulous Margot Livesey has written a book steeped in remote landscapes, secret histories, and great love. Orphan Gemma is a modern-day Jane Eyre, thoroughly engaging and bracingly unsentimental. The prose is meticulous, the tale transporting. Trust me, you will love this book.”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

Location: Street: 5233 N. Clark St. City: Chicago, Province: Illinois Postal Code: 60640-2122 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

margot livesey reads from The Flight of Gemma Hardy.

Please join us on Sunday, February 26 at 3pm as Boston-area author Margot Livesey presents her most recent novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy. At once an homage to and a variation on the beloved classic Jane Eyre, this take on an iron-willed orphan girl, determined to find her place in the world despite the odds stacked against her, is set in Livesey's native Scotland in the early 1960s. Margot Livesey is the author of the novels The House on Fortune Street (which won the 2009 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award), Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, and Banishing Verona. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Livesey was born in Scotland and grew up on the edge of the Highlands; she is a distinguished writer in residence at Emerson College. (TooFondOfBooks)… (more)

The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a captivating tale, set in Scotland in the early 1960s, that is both an homage to and a modern variation on the enduring classic Jane Eyre. Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned by the age of ten, neglected by a bitter and cruel aunt, sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student, young Gemma seems destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman with dreams of the future, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands. But Gemma’s biggest trial is about to begin . . . a journey of passion and betrayal, secrets and lies, redemption and discovery, that will lead her to a life she’s never dreamed of.

Margot Livesey grew up in a boys’ private school in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught, and her mother, Eva, was the school nurse. After taking a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England she spent most of her twenties working in shops and restaurants and learning to write. Her most recent novels include Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona and The House on Fortune Street.

We are delighted to have Margot back at the Andover Bookstore, and excited to hear her read from the book Amy Bloom has called "a garden of pleasures: precision here, lyricism there, wit and compassionate insight throughout." Join us!

Location: Street: Andover Bookstore Additional: 89 R Main Street City: Andover , (added from IndieBound)… (more)