7 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print Originally published 2006 Genre Novel Country United States of America | 3.5/5 Goodreads Publication date 2006 ISBN 978-0-00-728708-6 Publisher HarperCollins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fiction books Left Neglected, The Guernsey Literary a, The Particular Sadness, Say You Re One of Them, The Thirteenth Tale | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book club girl brunonia barry on the lace reader
The Lace Reader (2006) is a novel by Brunonia Barry. The novel is set in Salem, Massachusetts, the American town famous for the Salem witch trials.
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The novel came to be well known for its unusual route to mainstream publishing. Originally self-published by the author it became a local success story, got rave reviews in many places including Publishers Weekly, and was eventually picked up by the US branch of HarperCollins in a multimillion-dollar deal.
It soon became a New York Times bestseller and is currently under option for a film. Rumoured casting includes Rachel McAdams as the lead character, Towner Whitney.
When asked about her inspiration for the book, Barry said, as reported on her blog:
For quite some time, I have been fascinated by the Hero’s Journey or the monomyth. Most stories that follow this pattern have a decidedly male orientation: a lone individual acts heroically and saves the day. I wondered if there might be an alternate form, a feminine Hero’s Journey. So I began to look at stories that featured female protagonists to see if they offered something different. What I found surprised me. Most of these women were either killed off or were ultimately rescued from their plight by male heros. Unsatisfied, I wondered if I could write a Hero’s Journey for women where the strong but wounded heroine must find a way to save herself.