Miss Jane

Miss Jane is courageous, resilient and enquiring; her parents are troubled souls, but loving. That said, Watson doesn’t succumb to sentimentality . . . With the woods and fields of Jane’s rural home seeming to cast a subtle enchantment on her life, hers is a history that is as unexpectedly beguiling as it is affecting. * Daily Mail *
A bittersweet southern pastoral, the story of a forgotten woman written with unearthly beauty. If Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor had a child, it would be Brad Watson. -- A. M. Homes, 'Best books of the year' * Guardian *
[Watson's] sensuous prose eases its way through vivid, deliberate scenes, rich with profound meaning . . . This proud, gentle novel shimmers with a subtle defiance, a near-physical need to celebrate a woman who lived against the odds. -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *
A writer of profound emotional depths * New York Times *
Miss Jane covers a quiet, often solitary lifetime enriched by the unfettered outdoors, the tough routine of farm life, and the ache of unconsummated love. Watson's characters are mentally dexterous in spite of their physical hardship. The book plays on the tongue like an oyster - first salty, then cold - before slipping away to be consumed and digested. * Washington Post *
In all its verisimilitude, Miss Jane is painful and hopeful in almost equal measure, a story worth telling even as it breaks your heart. * Chicago Review of Books *
[An] ambitious, touching novel -- Editor's Choice * New York Times *
Exquisitely written . . . life in all of its unsentimental and symphonic complexity . . . Miss Jane is an artistic triumph, a novel that will linger inside you as long as your own memories do. Brad Watson's gifts are immense. -- Andre Dubus III
Miss Jane is both winning and big-hearted in its embrace of and appreciation for what seems to be a disabling difference. One of its great pleasures is its young protagonist's flowering from loneliness to a new understanding of her place within creation. -- Jim Shepard
A beautiful portrait of a young girl trying to navigate a difficult life – and an honest story that will bring you to tears more than once. * Associated Press *
Miss Jane takes Watson's writing to new heights . . . A novel that thrums with beauty, melancholy, and desire. * Salon *
Brad Watson's eloquently homespun second novel, Miss Jane . . . His 'country folk' are complex and vulnerable, their stoicism and outer coldness a response to events beyond their control... [Jane's] fearless acceptance of what sets her apart is profoundly human, and her lifelong struggle to understand her place in the world reflects the intricate workings of our own mysterious hearts. * Atlanta Journal-Constitution *
Watson's accomplishment here is a marvel . . . Miss Jane demonstrates that through the act of imagination we can enter into another person's soul. Such imagination, though, requires ignoring boundaries and limits - including the conventions of gendered genres and gender norms - so that we can fully offer ourselves to the world of love. * Jackson Clarion Ledger *
[A] tender and affecting novel * National Book Review *
Brad Watson’s Miss Jane; a bittersweet southern pastoral, the story of a forgotten woman written with unearthly beauty. If Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor had a child, it would be Brad Watson -- AM Homes * Guardian *
Using language that is both candid and askew, Watson describes the quiet, often solitary life of a girl born in 1915 in rural Mississippi with a genital defect * Washington Post *
I really admired Brad Watson’s limpid novel Miss Jane about a woman born with an irreparable and humiliating physical anomaly who manages to fashion a rich and enigmatic life despite all odds. -- Tim Winton * Financial Review (Australia) *