A Gate at the Stairs

'Not a single sentence is wasted.’ Elizabeth Day

Lorrie Moore author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Faber & Faber

Published:22nd Apr '10

Should be back in stock very soon

A Gate at the Stairs cover

Twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a 'half-Jewish' farmer's daughter from the plains of the Midwest, has come to university. When she takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious and glamorous, Tassie is drawn into the life of their newly-adopted child and increasingly complicated household.

'You can sit back and have the time of your life reading A Gate at the Stairs.' Observer
'One of the funniest writers alive' Dave Eggers
'Hilarious and distressing, entertaining and wise' Roddy Doyle
'Moore's a writer you don't quit.' Guardian

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION***

A startlingly funny, inventive novel from one of America's most brilliant writers.

With America quietly gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a 'half-Jewish' farmer's daughter from the plains of the Midwest, has come to university - escaping her provincial home to encounter the complex world of culture and politics.

When she takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious and glamorous, Tassie is drawn into the life of their newly-adopted child and increasingly complicated household. As her past becomes increasingly alien to her - her parents seem older when she visits; her disillusioned brother ever more fixed on joining the military - Tassie finds herself becoming a stranger to herself. As the year unfolds, love leads her to new and formative experiences - but it is then that the past and the future burst forth in dramatic and shocking ways.

Refracted through the eyes of this memorable narrator, A Gate at the Stairs is a lyrical, beguiling and wise novel of our times.

  • Short-listed for Orange Prize for Fiction 2010

ISBN: 9780571249466

Dimensions: 200mm x 127mm x 20mm

Weight: 260g

336 pages

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