Clubs
Down on the Gulf Coast, where I grew up, we had a phrase–lagniappe–which meant “a little something extra.” The extra could refer to anything, so long as it was good, preferably tasty, and given out of friendliness and good will. According to Wikipedia, “It was also once in common usage by antiquarian booksellers, without regional limitation, and is still used by more old-fashioned members of that tribe.”
Well, this is my lagniappe page for book clubs. I’ve been hearing from book clubs all over the country about their experiences with No One You Know and The Year of Fog. I’ve answered a lot of questions, and I’ve also learned a few things: namely, guacamole tends to fly when the topic of Jake Balfour comes up, everybody remembers important events from her childhood differently from her parents and siblings, and just about everyone has a Thorpe in her past.
So, in the spirit of something extra, here you’ll find reading group guides, playlists (heard any Walty lately?), stories about what inspired each of my books, and more. I love hearing your book club stories, so please keep them coming.
READING GROUP GUIDES/Discussion questions
No One You Know
The Year of Fog
PLAYLISTS
No One You Know.
Here’s a sample of one of Billy Boudreaux’s standards.
The Year of Fog
Extra credit! Do you remember where this song appears in The Year of Fog?
INSPIRATION
An interview for the East Bay Express, about how NO ONE YOU KNOW came to be. Go here to read a more in-depth interview.
A story for the San Francisco Chronicle, about how a girl on the beach inspired The Year of Fog.
A few months solo in China inspired Dream of the Blue Room, out later this year in a new paperback edition.
MORE FUN FOR BOOK CLUBS
Play this Moxy Fruvous video, “My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors,” at your next book club meeting. I promise they’ll love it!
SUGGESTION
“A story has no beginning and no end. Arbitrarily one chooses the moment of experience from which to look backward or from which to begin.” In NO ONE YOU KNOW, this is Andrew Thorpe’s motto, borrowed (or stolen) from Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair. Try this with your book club: have everyone sit down with a pen and paper and finish this thought: “My story begins with…” Write for ten minutes (or five, if your group has a short attention span), and share.
ANSWERS
Check out my Q&A over at Random House, get in on the conversation on my Goodreads discussion page (I personally answer every question), or visit my interview page for answers to more questions than anyone could possibly be interested in hearing, with the possible exception of my mother.
EAT, DRINK, & BE LITERARY
Book clubs, I need your help! If you had a dish or cocktail that was a hit at your book club mixer for one of my books, please send it on! I’ll publish it here with your book club’s name and location. I’d also love to see photos from your meeting.
DRINK
Expresso martini, anyone?
Into a shaker two thirds filled with ice add a large (60ml) shot of vodka, a small (30ml) shot and a half of fresh espresso coffee (or very strong filter coffee), 2 dashes of sugar syrup and a dash of coffee liqueur (Toussant or Kahlua). Shake and strain into a Martini glass, then decorate with three coffee beans. (Thanks to Dawn in San Francisco for introducing me to this delicious caffeine infusion at her book club in San Francisco).
Glenda Shaw mixed up the Deja Blue cocktail for her book club discussion of DREAM OF THE BLUE ROOM. Get the recipe here.
DINE
Warm up with some San Francisco style clam chowder.
I’m not sure why they call it the “San Francisco treat,” but here’s a great recipe for, you guessed it, Rice-A-Roni.
SWEET
Edinburgh Fog
Going Local
If you’re in the area, try one of these great book club meeting spots:
Private: Purchase
Please support your local economy and help keep book culture alive by purchasing books in person or online at your favorite independent bookstore. Links to the major retailers are also provided.
NO ONE YOU KNOW
Indiebound
Booksmith, San Francisco
Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
Powell’s
Tattered Cover, Denver
Square Books, Oxford, MS
Borders
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
THE YEAR OF FOG
Indiebound
Booksmith, San Francisco
Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
Borders
Powell’s
Tattered Cover, Denver
Square Books, Oxford, MS
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
Map
One of the most rewarding aspects of writing The Year of Fog was getting to know my city more intimately. I spent a lot of time on foot, seeking out unfamiliar nooks and crannies. I hope you enjoy wandering the streets of San Francisco with photographer Abby as she searches for six-year-old Emma.
Click on any placemarker to read text and view images. Click “view larger map” on the bottom left of the map image to see a list of locations. Once you have enlarged the map, you can click the little yellow guy and drag him to any placemark to see a street view of that location.
If you would like to see a specific scene from the book on this map, email me at fogtalk at g mail dot com, and I’ll be sure to add it.
A song for the fog, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Put Your Hands Up:”
Bio
Michelle Richmond is the author of No One You Know, the New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog, the award-winning story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, and the novel Dream of the Blue Room, which was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award.
She is the recipient of the 2009 Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Mississippi Review Fiction Prize, and the Associated Writing Programs Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, Playboy, Oxford American, Salon, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere.
Michelle holds an MFA from the University of Miami, where she was a James Michener Fellow. She has taught in the MFA programs in Creative Writing at the University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and Bowling Green State University. She now writes full time.
A native of Mobile, Alabama, Michelle lives with her husband and son in San Francisco. She is represented by Valerie Borchardt of Georges Borchardt, Inc. She is currently at work on a new novel, which will be published by Bantam in 2010. Her debut novel, DREAM OF THE BLUE ROOM (2003), will also be available in a new paperback edition from Bantam next year.
Read interviews here.
Click here for downloadable author photos. All photos should be credited to Misty Richmond.
You’ll find some of Michelle’s short stories and essays online here.
And as long as you got this far, you might as well know that this is the song my husband hooked me with, way back when in Arkansas.
author photo by Misty Richmond
Fog
Go here to read the first chapter. Buy the book.
An unusually imaginative novel of family, loss and hope, The Year of Fog tackles mysteries of time, memory and the human heart.” ~South China Morning Post
The Year of Fog was selected by Library Journal as one of the “Best Books of 2007,” and by Kirkus Reviews as a “Top Pick for Reading Groups.” It was also a Washington Post “A-list book”, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book, and a Target Bookmarked Club Pick, and is now in its fifteenth trade paperback printing. Critically acclaimed in its French and German translations, it has been published or is forthcoming in seven additional languages. The Year of Fog spent four weeks on the New York Times best seller list, six weeks on the New York Times extended best seller list, and seven weeks on the San Francisco Chronicle best seller list, as well as other bestseller lists across the country and in Germany. The film adaptation of The Year of Fog, starring Rachel Weisz, is in pre-production with Newmarket Films. For film updates and other news, join the Year of Fog facebook page.
Photo tour: View a photographer’s take on the places that inspired The Year of Fog.
Interactive map of San Francisco, based upon The Year of Fog.
The Fog Mix. Yo La Tengo, Beulah, Walty, Morrissey, Steve Forbert, Laura Cantrell, Tom Waits, Wilco, Bruce, Chris Isaak, and more. Music for the fog.
For Book Clubs: Reading Group Guide & Discussion Questions
Author Q&A: My advice to an aspiring author? Be the quietest person at the dinner party. Listen. Observe. Tune into the way people behave, their motivations…
The story behind the book:Emma Balfour walked into my life in the summer of 2003. Our paths collided on Ocean Beach, the 3-mile stretch of gray sand and graffiti-spattered seawall marking the western edge of the city…
Listen to an interview with Michelle Richmond about The Year of Fog, from the XM Radio program Writers on Writing, available for free through AudibleWord. Interview by Josephine Reed. Press play and go to minute 7:30. Note: this is a ten-minute excerpt from a half-hour interview.
Purchase here: From the West Coast to the Gulf Coast, a few of my favorite independent bookstores.
Read an excerpt. Here the truth, this is what I know: we were walking on Ocean Beach, hand in hand. It was a summer morning, cold, July in San Francisco…
Publishers of The Year of Fog in translation: Random House Germany/Diana, Archipel (Netherlands), Tericum Kiado (Hungary), Videograf ii(Poland), AST (Russia), Editorial Presenca (Portugal), Buchet-Chastel (France), La Esfera De Los Libros (Spain), Musa Knyga (Lithuania)
Also soon to be available from Ebury in England.
About the Book:
Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco mist. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger’s van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches her mind for clues about what happened that morning—and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach.
Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma’s father finds solace in his faith–but Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the life and the little girl that she lost. With her hope fading and her life at a crossroads, she will leave San Francisco for a country thousands of miles away. And it is there, by the side of another sea, on a journey that has taken her into a strange subculture of wanderers and surfers, that Abby will make the most astounding discovery of all—as the truth of Emma’s disappearance unravels with stunning force.
A profoundly original novel of family, loss, and hope, THE YEAR OF FOG beguiles with its window into the mysteries of time and memory even as it lays bare the deep and wondrous workings of the human heart. The result is a mesmerizing drama that will touch anyone who knows what it means to love a child.
To schedule an author chat, please contact me at fogtalk at gmail dot com.
Reviews & Advance Praise:
“A mesmerizing novel of loss and grief, hope and redemption, and the endurance of love.” Library Journal, starred review
“In this spare page-turner, Richmond draws complex tensions from the setup of a child gone missing… The book is beautifully paced—one feels Abby’s clarity of purpose from the first page. The sure-handed denouement reflects the focus and restraint that Richmond brings to bear throughout.” Publishers Weekly
“Richmond gracefully explores the nature of memory and perception in key passages that never slow the suspense of the search…a page-turner with a philosophical bent.” Booklist
Grade: A. “Gripping…Richmond makes the reader feel the gamut of emotions, from the initial disbelief and blind hope to the nagging guilt and gnawing despair.” ~Alexis Burling,The Washington Post
“What marks us, and how do we react to our impressions, both large and small, of life? These are the questions asked by San Francisco author Michelle Richmond in her wonderful second novel, “The Year of the Fog. Despite all its drama — and this heart-wrenching tale does ratchet up the tension — this is primarily a story of echoes and repercussions…spare, moving…it’s all done delicately, in almost poetic terms.” Clea Simon, The San Francisco Chronicle (read the review here)
“Richmond’s second novel is a startlingly original take on every parent’s worst nightmare…An unsettling and powerful punch of a book, The Year of Fog unfolds as a waking dream about the persistence of memory and the extraordinary force of love.” Cookie Magazine
“A good part of what makes “The Year of Fog” compulsively readable is the voice of its narrator. Abby’s tone is quietly conversational, almost as though she is sitting across the table and, over a cup of coffee, calmly telling her tale. The dispassionate tone reveals a brutally honest teller, and only serves to heighten the tension of the story…both believable and bittersweet.” Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post
“A harrowing, beautifully written story of a photographer and soon-to-be stepmom whose momentary lapse in attention results in the disappearance of her fiancé’s little girl on a foggy beach in San Francisco. What happened to 6-year-old Emma? The answer, and its implications, will keep you on the edge of your beach chair.” Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times.
“[The Year of Fog] manages to have both the high-velocity pace of a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller and nuanced insights into the nature of memory, love, family, and guilt…Richmond burros into the details of San Francisco’s geogaphy and neighborhoods…Like all good mysteries, The Year of Fog twists the reader’s expectations, turning some of what we think we know about missing child cases on its head and providing a surprising and satisfying ending that manages to retain the complexity of real life. It is, in the end, a very memorable book.” ~Samantha Berry, Marin Magazine
“Much more than a tale of a woman looking for a child who’s lost. It’s also about the nature of passion, guilt, and most of all, memory…The Year of Fog also serves as a real-life guidebook of sorts to some of San Francisco’s lesser known neighborhoods and sites…Richmond captures the spirit of life in The City.” ~Leslie Katz, The San Francisco Examiner
“A hauntingly written novel of two people dealing with loss in their own ways… Richmond’s dream-like prose lends to an eerie atmosphere, and the solving [of] the mystery of Emma’s disappearance will leave you breathless.” Parkersburg News & Sentinel
“A child’s disappearance is at the heart of this riveting read that follows photographer, fiancée and soon-to-be-stepmother Abby Mason. Once the drama starts, prepare to race to the last page.” Hallmark Magazine
“Grab your beach bag and call your book club, The Year of Fog probably will be the best new novel of the summer…vivid environmental descriptions and psychologically sound character development. As with all good novels that border on great literature, the plot is multilayered. The Year of Fog will leave the reader both perplexed and enlightened.” Reba McMellon, The Mississippi Press
“A book I just finished this morning - reading while I was making breakfast because I absolutely could not put it down- is The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond. Every single word in this book was worth reading. There are parts of this book that are heartbreaking, but I truly believe it deserves to be a best seller…” Tina Ristau, Des Moines Register
“Richmond artfully combines Abby’s research on memory and a sensitive depiction of her relationship with fiance Jake, resulting in a compelling, smart novel that you truly will find difficult to put down.” Birmingham Magazine
“While The Year of Fog is structured around the search for Emma, it offers a deeper meditation on the fragility of love. Which is the stronger loyalty, to child or lover? How can we relieve someone else’s despair? These sometimes unanswerable questions form the heart of Richmond’s book…The Year of Fog works well as both a literary mystery and a poignant portrait of a family ripped apart by random circumstance.” Frances Dinkelspiel, Culture Vulture
“The Year of Fog [is] written so movingly that an experience that is far from universal becomes immediate and personal… the vignettes throughout create a larger poetica in which it is the reader who becomes, happily, lost.” Santa Fe Reporter
“The dilemma with Michelle Richmond’s newest novel is this: the plot is so compelling you can’t read fast enough, but the writing is so crisp and exact you want to savor every word…Nothing is sugar-coated in these pages, which makes Abby’s self-realizations all the more honest, satisfying, and true. ” Anita Garner, Alabama Writers’ Forum
“Beautifully written, with deep insights into the human soul.” Willow Glen Books, San Jose, CA
“In The Year of Fog, Richmond gives us both a mystery and a meditation on memory. Profound, deeply moving, endlessly gripping; you will devour it in a weekend and turn it over to begin again.” ~Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli
“From the very first chapter The Year of Fog grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go. Michelle Richmond is that marvelous thing, a writer who can craft a gorgeous sentence and also create a plot so propulsive that it hurts to put the book down, even for a minute. And forget about sleeping. You won’t do that until you’re finished.” ~Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
“Michelle Richmond’s The Year of Fog is a harrowing and unputdownable novel. A moving account of one woman’s ardous journey from an ordinary day to nightmare to, ultimately, redemption. Few novelists put their characters through harder paces than Richmond. And readers have no choice but to carried away by the enduring beauty of this story.” ~Peter Orner, author of The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo & Esther Stories
“Suspenseful, richly imagined, and ultimately hopeful, The Year of Fog is a keeper. Michelle Richmond is a talent to watch.” ~Joshilyn Jackson, author of Gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia
“Michelle Richmond crafts an addictive, haunting story, filled with brainy tidbits and a local’s love of landscape.” ~Michelle Tea, author of Valencia, Rent Girl, Rose of No Man’s Land
“The Year of Fog is impossible to stop reading. Even as I savored Michelle Richmond’s rich prose and fascinating passages on photography and the nature of memory, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. A missing child, a haunting neighborhood, a search for love, The Year of Fog has it all. Make a sandwich now: you won’t stop reading for hours.”~Amanda Eyre Ward, author of How to Be Lost and Sleep Toward Heaven
“In The Year of Fog, Michelle Richmond has performed something of a magic act. From the first few pages I was hooked. As though she knows the ride she is is taking us on is harrowing, Richmond peppers the story with mischievous humor and unexpected insights, all layered over a gorgeous love letter to San Francisco.” ~Heather Juergensen, co-writer, actor, Kissing Jessica Stein
“Michelle Richmond gives us a fascinating look into the mind of an artist. Richmond’s prose is sensual, her images fresh, her writing, lyrical and lovely.” ~Ann Cummins, author of Red Ant House and Yellowcake
German Reviews
“Michelle Richmonds “Ein einziger Blick” ist psychologisch raffinierte Hochspannung.” FREUNDIN
“Großartiges Psychogramm einer Frau, die durch eine Entführung die Lügen ihres eigenen Lebens aufarbeitet.” PETRA
“Dass aus dieser schlichten Idee ein richtig guter Roman wird, liegt daran, dass Michelle Richmond eine blendende Erzählerin ist. Mit einem literarisch ansprechenden Stil, melancholischen Tönen. Einem ruhigen, sicheren Erzählfluss und intensiven Charakteren. (…) Ein dramatischer Stoff, aus dem die Autorin eine Erzählung gestaltet hat, die bezaubert.” WDR 5: SERVICE BÜCHER + NEUGIER GENÜGT
“Ich musste mich noch nie so beherrschen, nicht vorab zum Schluss zu blättern.” Angela Wittmann, BRIGITTE
“Psychologisch raffinierte Hochspannung.” Freundin
“Es ist die sensible Beschreibung menschlicher Beziehungen und der darin verstrickten Personen, die diesen Roman zu einer aufregenden Lektüre machen.” WIENERIN
“Wenn ein Kind verschwindet, mutmaßlich entführt oder gar ermordet wird, dann lässt sich daraus ein Thriller stricken – oder ein Roman wie dieser: nicht reißerisch, sondern verträumt. Richmond findet zarte, poetische Töne, erzählt die dramatische Handlung in einer Kette subtil berührender Momente. Richmond glänzt dabei mit einem literarisch ansprechenden Stil, einem ruhigen, sicheren Erzählfluss und intensiven Charakteren.” WDR5
Reviews of The Year of Fog in French:
“Un magnifique livre qui nous entraîne dans une atmosphère pesante, le brouillard dominant accroissant cette sensation.” Aurélie Paschal, Journal despros
“Celle-ci, rongée par le remord et la culpabilité, mais armée de l’énergie du désespoir, consacre tout son temps, son instinct et sa mémoire à cette quête. Un livre très bien écrit…” Le livre du jour, Radio France
“Admirablement et adroitement porté par une écriture tour à tour descriptive, photographique et réflexive qui prend parfois la forme d’une méditation intérieure, L’Année brouillard est dépouillé de tout sentimentalisme ; il rivalise au contraire de lucidité, et de profondeur dans l’exploration anatomique de l’ensemble des conséquences d’une disparition d’enfant.” Chez Clarabel
“L’année brouillard est l’histoire haletante de la recherche d’Emma par la police d’abord, puis par Jake et Abby ensemble, enfin, au bout d’environ trois cents jours alors que son père abattu et découragé ne croit plus aux chances de retrouver sa petite fille, par Abby seule. Elle consacre tout son temps, son instinct et sa mémoire à cette quête. Obsédée par l’importance de retrouver le souvenir du moindre détail, du moindre événement, du moindre personnage présent ce jour funeste sur la plage, elle mène l’enquête à sa façon. Armée de l’énergie du désespoir et de l’angoisse, de sa culpabilité à conjurer et de la soif de se forger une image acceptable d’elle-même, mais délaissée car accusée en silence par Jake, elle mettra tout en œuvre pour retrouver les ravisseurs d’Emma. Y parviendra-t-elle ?” Arts & Livres
Email Michelle at this address: fogtalk @ gmail . com (all one word)
Publicity requests: Kathleen Rudkin at Bantam/Dell: KRudkin at randomhouse . com (all one word)
Events
Spring & Summer 2009
Get Michelle Richmond’s events on twitter.
The Reporter City-Wide Book Club
May 6, 7:00 p.m.
Vacaville Public Library, Vacaville, CA
Q&A, discussing THE YEAR OF FOG
South Bay Writers–Featured Speaker
May 12, 7:00 p.m.
Sunnyvale, CA
Wednesday, May 20, 6:00 PM
Book Passage
1 Ferry Building #42, San Francisco, CA, 94111
BOOK PARTY FOR PAPERBACK RELEASE OF No One You Know
May 21
Books Inc., Burlingame, 7:00 p.
1375 Burlingame Ave
Reading with the wonderful Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters
Thursday, May 28, 7:30 PM
Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts
With Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters
2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA
June 2
Clayton Books, Clayton, CA
Reading with Meg Waite Clayton
June 04, 2009 7:30pm
Sweet Thursday at the Lafayette Library
Lafayette, CA
June 12
Literary Death Match, Elbo Room, San Francisco
July 10 & 11
Foothill College Writers Conference
I’ll be doing a reading, conducting a workshop with Alan Cheuse, and holding a couple of seminars. Details here.
October 17
Reading at the Rumpus Litquake litcrawl event, with performance by John Wesley Harding and readings by Vendela Vida and Bucky Sinister, hosted by Rumpus editor Stephen Elliott. At the Makeout Room, San Francisco.
September 30
Interview with Julia Glass at the San Francisco JCC
This event will also be broadcast on KALW
2010
Feb 6, 2010
Festival of Women Authors
YWCA, Oakland, CA
April 8, 2010
UC Berkeley Story Hour
Doe Library, Details here
Previous Events
College of Saint Mary’s Scholarship Fundraiser
featuring Al Young, Michael Ondaatje, Brenda Hillman, Michelle Richmond, and Alev Croutier
March 07, 2009 5:00pm, Chadwick’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $100
University of Miami, Reading & Talk
March 11, 2009 12:15pm
Miami, FL
Towne Center Books, Pleasanton–Featured Speaker
March 28, 1:00-3:00
Scholarship fundraiser
Conference on Southern Literature
Reading featuring the recipients of the 2009 Fellowship of Southern Writers awards
April 03, 2009 9:00am
Chattanooga, TN
April 13
Notre Dame de Namur University–Featured Speaker
Wiegland Gallery, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont , CA
Orinda Books
April 16, 7:00 p.m.
With Frances Dinkelspiel, Brenda Webster, Jessica Barksdale Inclan, and Susan Freinkel
Literary Women: The Bay Area Festival of Authors
April 18, Pleasant Hill, CA
Pleasant Hill Community Center, 9:00 - 2:00
Tickets are $42, and include tea and a boxed lunch
Northern California Book Awards
April 19, Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library
Feb. 3, Jewish Community Center, San Francisco
7:30 pm, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave
Panel discussion with editor Ellen Sussman and contributors Kim Addonizio, Michelle Richmond and Kate Moses.
Sept. 16, City Arts and Lectures with Paul Auster
Join me at Herbst Theater in San Francisco for a conversation with one my favorite authors, Paul Auster. If you can’t make the live event, you can hear City Arts & Lectures on the radio.
Sept. 21, Booksmith booth at the Cole Valley Street Fair, San Francisco, noon
Sept. 27, Towne Center Books, Pleasanton, CA
Read it and eat author luncheon: lunch, wine, and book discussion, NO ONE YOU KNOW
October 9, Litquake, Nightclub at Hemlock Tavern at 1131 Polk St
Featuring: Bob Calhoun, Alan Black, Jack Boulware, Michael Disend, Beth Lisick, Michelle Richmond, Sylvie Simmons, David Henry Sterry.
October 13, WKRG TV, Mobile, Alabama
9:00 a.m., talking about No One You Know and The Year of Fog
October 26, Book Group Expo, San Jose, CA
Panel, “The Liar’s Club,” with Rabbih Alameddine (The Hakawati), Selden Edwards (The Little Book), and Julie Robinson
Previous Events
July 1, No One You Know book launch party
Books Inc, Opera Plaza
July 9, Kepler’s, reading and signing
1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA
July 13, Backstage with Ben Fong-Torres
Tune in to 106.9 KFRC, where I talk with Ben Fong-Torres about No One You Know: the music, the inspiration, and how he came to be a character in the book. And listen while Ben spins some songs about fog, memory, math, and coffee. You can listen live from 8-9 a.m. or 8-9 p.m. today, or listen to the podcast anytime.
July 15, The Booksmith, reading & signing
1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA, 7:30 p.m.
Discussion and general throw-down. Drinks afterward across the street.
July 16, The Depot, discussion & signing
87 Throckmornton Ave, Mill Valley, CA, 7:00 p.m.
There’s ice cream just down the lane, you know.
July 17, Rakestraw Books, reading & signing
409 Railroad Ave, Danville, CA
July 19, Conversations on the Coast
Tune in to listen to my conversation with Jim Foster about No One You Know. Show airs at 3:00 and will be available here as a podcast.
July 29, M Is For Mystery
Reading & signing. 7:00 p.m.
86 East Third Ave, San Mateo, CA
August 13, Dirty Words, Litquake’s Tribute to Smut
Starring Daniel Handler, Ellen Sussman, Michelle Richmond, Kim Addonizio, Helena Echlin, Stephen Elliot, emcee Kirk Read, a fashion show by SOMA purveyor of corsets and fine leather Stormy Leather, along with cabaret and burlesque from Twilight Vixen Review.
CELLspace2050 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 7:00 - 11:00 pm
Purchase tickets ($25) here. Proceeds go to Litquake.
March 25, Sex for America, The Booksmith on Haight
With editor Stephen Elliott, and fellow contributors Nick Flynn and Anthony Swofford
April 19, Progressive Reading Series
Jane Smiley, Michelle Richmond, Tom Bissell, and Charlie Anders. Make-Out Room, San Francisco.
May 10, All-Star Literary Death Match, Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco
I’ll be judging as winners of past throw-downs go head-to-head. Hosted by Todd Zuniga and Opium Magazine.
March 9 - Writers on Writing, XM Satellite Radio
Program airs at 3:00 p.m. About the show: “A behind-the-scenes look at what goes on between the covers of today’s top sellers and tomorrow’s classics with authors like Anne Rice, Richard Ford, Ann Patchett, and Amy Tan.”
March 12
A Great Good Place for Books, Oakland
March 19, Evening Tea, hosted by Clayton Books, Clayton, CA
Englund’s Tea Cottage. Reservation required. Free admittance with purchase of The Year of Fog.
March 4
Books Inc., Palo Alto. 7:00 p.m. 855 El Camino Real #74. 10% of the days sales will benefit the C-A-R (Community Association for Rehabilitation)!
March 6
Mrs. Dalloway’s, Berkeley. 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 11, Minna Gallery, San Francisco
New Voices panel sponsored by National Book Critics Circle, moderated by Jane Ciabattari. 5:30 p.m. Panelists: Sandy Dijkstra, literary agent; David Kipen, NEA director of literature; Eli Horowitz, Publisher, McSweeney’s Books; Suzanne Kleid, City Lights Books and KQED blogger; Michael Ray, editor ZOETROPE: ALL STORY; Michelle Richmond, author.
Jan. 31 - 826 Valencia, San Francisco
Novel writing seminar featuring Andrew Sean Greer, Michelle Richmond, and Ann Packer. The cost is $100, and proceeds benefit the programs of 826 Valencia.
Jan. 31, Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco
After the novel-writing seminar at 826 Valencia, I’ll be heading over to the Center for Sex & Culture, where no mayhem and madness will be spared in celebrating the publication of Stephen Elliott’s new anthology, Sex for America. Readers include Michelle Tea, Mistress Morgana, Charlie Anders, Liz Henry, Daphne Gottlieb, and yours truly.
February 23, Cantina, San Francisco. Babylon Salon.
Eat, drink, and hear stories. Readings by Eileen Reynolds, Herb Sandhu, Julie Bifano, The Editor’s Choice reader from Opium Magazine. Featured artist: Michelle Richmond. Complimentary eats. Cash bar-exotica! The location host is one Duggan McDonnell, famed mixologist.
2007
November 6, Harlot
Join me at Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match. The actors of comedy troupe Killing My Lobster–Jon Wolanske, Todd Brotze, Joel Dovev and Eric Schniewind–will be reading the funniest stories from past issues of Opium. I’ll be judging the event, along with Canteen Editor Sean Finney and Talk Show Live host Kurt Bodden.
August 20, 7:00 p.m.
Reading and book talk at Sunset Branch of San Francisco Public Library.
Sept. 23
Cole Valley Street Fair. I’ll be signing books and chatting with street-goers (is that a word?) at the Booksmith booth.
Oct 3
My essay “Blackout in Ushuaia” will be read on Australian public radio. The podcast will be available here.
Oct 11
Litquake: Original short story evening. I’ll join a few other Bay Area authors in reading short stories we’ve written specifically for this event, on the theme of “The Lesser Evil.”
Oct. 16
Fort Mason, San Francisco. Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, party for Bad Girls. With Joyce Maynard, Pam Houston, Ellen Sussman, and Liz Rosner.
Oct. 17
Reading and book discussion at The Depot, Mill Valley, California. 7:00 p.m.
Oct. 26
Annual Author Luncheon at San Francisco Day School, proceeds to benefit the school
previous events, 2007
July 16
Book Passage, Corte Madera. Reading with Joyce Maynard, Liz Rosner, Lolly Winston, Kate Moses, Kaui Hart Hemmings, & Susan Casey for Ellen Sussman’s new anthology Bad Girls
July 17
Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match, Harlot (San Francisco), 8:30
I’ll be competing against Stephen Elliott, Joyce Maynard, and Sam Hurwitt in a fight to the finish of the (sort of) literary variety. Judges Howard Junker (ZYZZYVA), Beth Lisick (Everyone into the Pool), and Jon Wolanske (Killing My Lobster) will judge us on “literary merit, performance, and intangibles” before the two lucky finalists move on to a heart-palpitating game of Stab a Hole in Nebraska. Details here.
July 21
West Coast Live at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley with the Bad Girls posse
July 24
The Booksmith, San Francisco. Reading with Joyce Maynard, Liz Rosner, Kate Moses, Kim Addonizio, & Kaui Hart Hemmings, for Ellen Sussman’s new anthology Bad Girls.
July 26
Reading and book talk for THE YEAR OF FOG at Mrs. Dalloway’s, Berkeley. (This will be my only East Bay event for The Year of Fog.)
August 9, View from the Bay
On ABC 7 with Ellen Sussman, editor of Bad Girls, and fellow contributer Elizabeth Rosner.
April 4, 2007
Reading and launch party for THE YEAR OF FOG
Books Inc. Opera Plaza, San Francisco
6:00 wine and cheese reception, 7:00 reading
join us afterward for drinks at Hotel Rex
April 9
“A night of literary fiction” at the fabulous Kepler’s in Menlo Park, CA
Reading with Ann Cummins, author of Yellowcake
7:30 p.m.
April 13, The California Report
The Year of Fog reviewed by Jordan Rosenfeld. Click here for the podcast.
April 14, West Coast Live
Join me, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Peter Plate, the all-girl band Misty River, Celtic gem Melanie O’Reilly, and others at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, where we’ll be taping the radio program West Coast Live. Reservations: 415-664-9500. You can show up early for the 10 a.m. show, featuring Jonathan Lethem and music by Tango #9.
April 17
Reading at Book Passage in the Ferry Building, San Francisco 7:00 p.m.
April 20
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Laureates Dinner
6:30 p.m.
April 21-22
Arkansas Literary Festival, Little Rock
April 28
Reading at Bookshop West Portal with Sheri Joseph, author of Stray
May 5
A pre-recorded West Coast Live will air today, with Fogtown author Peter Plate, musical guests Misty River, and yours truly
May 8
Reading and signing at San Francisco Public Library, Main Branch
May 16
Radar Salon Series, hosted by Michelle Tea, at the Harvey Milk Branch of San Francisco Public Library
May 19
Inside Storytime
Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco
June 8 - 10
Book Group Expo, San Jose Convention Center
June 14
Reading at Book Passage in Corte Madera, 7:00 p.m. Read my posts on the Book Passage blog here.
March 12, 2007
Kepler’s Book Club Mixer
Reception with local authors begins at 6:45, followed by a presentation of staff picks. With Lalita Tademy, Firoozeh Dumas, Lolly Winston, Barry Eisler, yours truly, & others.
March 28-31, 2007
University of North Dakota Writers Conference
featuring Miller Williams, Li-Young Lee, Timothy Liu, Michelle Richmond, Leslie Adrienne Miller, Stuart Dybek, and Mary Gaitskill
2006
Sept. 25
Join Stephen Elliott, Carol Queen, Justin Chin, & yours truly for a reading & book release party for Stephen’s new book, My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up, Good Vibrations on Valencia, San Francisco, Sept. 25, 2006. One night when it’s all well and good to have your mind in the gutter.
Litquake. Local MacAdam/Cage authors Stephen Elliott, Michelle Tea, Craig Clevenger, & Michelle Richmond. Oct. 14. 8:00 p.m., The Make-Out Room, 22nd & Valencia.
Monday, November 6, 2006 at 7:00 PM, Madrone Lounge
Joint reading with The May Queen contributors and editor Christina Amini and contributors from Before The Mortgage.
500 Divisadero Street (at the corner of Fell)
Radar Love: a reading to benefit Carole & Mitzi, aka Beth Lisick (Everybody into the Pool) and Tara Jepsen, who are shooting a follow-up to their smash short film, Diving for Pearls. Thursday, August 24th Varnish Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco. Natoma between 1st & 2nd. 8:00pm $6.00. Hosted by Michelle Tea, with Joan Jett Blakk, Fear of the Outdoors, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Zoey Kroll, Luna Maia, yours truly, & more.
July 26, 2006, Cody’s Books, San Francisco
Reading with Dao Strom, Nicki Richesin, and Kim Askew, for The May Queen antholgoy
June 18, 2006, San Jose, CA
Book Group Expo, 2:30-3:30, Salon A.
Panel with Sylvia Brownrigg, Elizabeth Dewberry, and Adrienne Sharp, talking about writing “complex relationships.” The Book Group Expo will feature many authors, including Amy Tan, Dorothy Allison, Molly Giles, Ayelet Waldman, ZZ Packer, Mary Roach, Rabih Alameddine, and others.
March 10, 2006, Austin, TX
Hot prose with hot pros! Reading at Book People, “the largest booktore in Texas,” with Steve Almond, Sheri Joseph, & Michelle Tea, yours truly. 7:00 p.m. Get all the dirty details here.
March 11, 2006, noon, Austin Convention Center
Sexing the Story: Adventures in the Literary Boudoir (panel). Where: AWP Conference in Austin. Panelists: Steve Almond, Sheri Joseph, Michelle Tea. Moderated by yours truly.
April 3, A Clean Well-Lighted Place, 7 p.m.
Nicki Richesin, editor of the anthology The May Queen, and contributors
Nov. 28, 2006 Talk of the Nation, NPR
Don George, Simon Winchester(A Crack in the Edge of the World, The Map That Changed the World), and yours truly join Neil Conan to talk about George’s latest Lonely Planet anthology, By the Seat of My Pants. You can listen to the podcast here.
Dec. 7, San Francisco Public Library
Reading with fellow MacAdam/Cage authors Katherine Towler and Pamela Holm, plus Tupelo Press editor Jeffrey Levine and poets Ilya Kaminsky and Pireeni Sundaralingam with musician Colm O Riain
Dec. 8, Pegasus Books, Berkeley
Reading with Katherine Towler & Jeffrey Levine
Dec. 12, Edinburgh Castle, San Francisco
Katia Noyes, Daphne Gottlieb, Charlie Anders, & Michelle Richmond. A sort of literary free-for-all at San Francisco’s favorite literary underground pub, moderated by Kate Braverman.
Dec. 14, Book Passage, Corte Madera
Join Lonely Planet editor Don George, yours truly, and other contributors to the LP humor anthology By the Seat of My Pants for a lively reading and discussion, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Feb. 2 2006
Radar Reading Series with Michelle Richmond, Heather Rogers, & others at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Hosted by Michelle Tea, writer of books and baker of cookies.
October 15–fun reading…in bar! with drinks!
LitQuake is the biggest literary event in San Francisco–don’t miss it! The 9-day brouhaha ends with the ever-popular lit crawl in the Mission, featuring dozens of authors feeling the fruits of their martinis. From 8:00 - 9:15, I’ll be reading with fellow MacAdam/Cage authors Stephen Elliott, Michelle Tea, & Will Christopher Baer at the Make-Out Room (22nd St between Valencia & Mission).
October 16
826 Valencia, San Francisco. Writing the Novel seminar with Andrew Sean Greer, Bharati Mukherjee, & Michelle Richmond, moderated by Stephen Elliott.
October 23
Litblogger panel at Black Oak Books in Berkeley, with Kevin Smokler, Michelle Richmond, Laila Lalami, & Frances Dinkelspiel
Nov. 20, Book Passage, Corte Madera
Kevin Smokler, editor of Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, and yours truly–reading and discussion
Sept. 19
The Progressive Reading Series Presents: A Special Benefit For The Victims Of Hurricane Katrina Monday, September 19, 7pm The Makeout Room, San Francisco. $10 - $20 sliding scale.
Proceeds to benefit the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Fund
Featuring readings from: Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), Firoozeh Dumas, Julie Orringer, Peter Orner, Daphne Gottlieb, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Truong Tran, Michelle Richmond, Anne Marino, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, Tom Barbash, and Michelle Tea
Sept. 14
St. Mary’s College of Moraga Reading Series. 7:30 p.m
Joint reading with Spring 2006 Distinguished Writers in Residence, Julie Orringer (How to Breathe Underwater) & Michelle Richmond
Sonoma County Book Fair. Litblog panel with Michelle Richmond, Jordan Rosenfeld and Martha O’Connor.
August 2
Reading at Zebulons Lounge in Petaluma with Michelle Richmond, Bruce Bauman, Jordan Rosenfeld, & Night Train’s Susan Henderson. Read all about it here.
June 1
Join Kevin Smokler, Michelle Richmond, Adam Johnson, Paul Flores, and Nico Cary for the Bookmark Now launch party at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books in San Francisco.
June 16
Bookmark Now reading at The Booksmith on Haight Street
Wed., June 22
Join Michelle and Rachel Pastan, author of This Side of Married, for a reading at Diesel Books in Oakland. 7:30 p.m.
July 13
Join Michelle and Pamela Holm, author of The Night Garden, for a reading at Potrero Library
July 23
Join me, Kevin Smokler, K.M. Soehnlein, & Adam Johnson for a panel at Books by the Bay in Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco)
Books in an Unreaderly World (10:30-11:15 Outdoor Panel Tent)
in the blogosphere
Mark Pritchard interviewed me for San Francisco Metblogs. Discussed: Ocean Beach as noir nirvana, impending doom, and heightened vigilance.
Nicki Richesin interviewed me about The Year of Fog for The Happy Booker. And catch my guest dj spot on the same blog, wherein I discuss my Badly Drawn Boy all-girl tribute band aspirations, a melancholy cover by Beautiful South, and the best oral sex/church song ever.
Gayle Brandeis (The Book of Dead Birds), interviews me for her blog, fruitful. Discussed: favorite writing exercises, the difference between writing a novel and writing short stories, and the glory of the pomegranate.
Joshilyn Jackson (author of Gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia) interviewed me about what it means to be a Southern writer, and the inspiration for Dream of the Blue Room.
Books
Click here to purchase any of my books online, including signed copies.
Visit the fog page for reviews of The Year of Fog, along with discussion questions, photos, a San Francisco-centric playlist (heard any Walty lately?), and the story behind the book.
About NO ONE YOU KNOW
“Donna Tartt meets Alice Sebold in a beautifully compelling literary mystery.” (Ebury UK)
All her life Ellie Enderlin had been known as Lila’s sister. Until one day, without warning, the shape of their family changed forever. Twenty years ago, Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered in a crime that was never solved. In the aftermath of her sister’s death, Ellie entrusted her most intimate feelings to a man who turned the story into a bestselling true crime book—a book that both devastated her family and identified one of Lila’s professors as the killer.
Decades later, two Americans meet in a remote village in Nicaragua. Ellie is now a professional coffee buyer, an inveterate traveler and incapable of trust. Peter is a ruined academic. And their meeting is not by chance. As rain beats down on the steaming rooftops of the village, Peter leaves Ellie with a gift—the notebook that Lila carried everywhere, a piece of evidence not found with her body. Stunned, Ellie will return home to San Francisco to explore the mysteries of Lila’s notebook, filled with mathematical equations, and begin a search that has been waiting for her all these years. It will lead her to a hundred-year-old mathematical puzzle, to a lover no one knew Lila had, to the motives and fate of the man who profited from their family’s anguish—and to the deepest secrets even sisters keep from each other. As she connects with people whose lives unknowingly swirled around her own, Ellie will confront a series of startling revelations—from the eloquent truths of numbers to confessions of love, pain and loss.
A novel about the stories and lies that strangers, lovers and families tell—and the secrets we keep even from ourselves.
Praise for No One You Know
“Heartbreaking and compelling…Richmond gracefully weaves in fascinating background material on the coffee culture and the field of mathematics as she thoughtfully explores family dynamics, the ripple effects of tragedy, and the importance of the stories we tell. Combine all that with perfect pacing and depth of insight, and you have a thoroughly riveting literary thriller.” Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist, Starred Review
“Richmond returns to San Francisco for another enjoyable blend of mystery and domestic fiction…Vivid descriptions and loving explanations of the city and intelligent forays into the sciences of coffee and mathematics enhance Richmond’s quietly captivating novel.” Publishers Weekly
“Michelle Richmond follows her compulsively readable fiction debut, “The Year of Fog,” with an equally addictive encore. Richmond takes a singular approach in “No One You Know.” The story is propelled by the mystery surrounding Lila’s death, the who- done-it and why. But the central narrative is more focused on emotional truths than on solving a crime.” Denver Post
“Thoughtful, involving, intricately constructed, and well written…Michelle Richmond never strikes a false note in “No One You Know,” her third novel. It’s an intelligent, emotionally convincing tale about a family tragedy and the process of storytelling.” Boston Globe “As complex and beautiful as a mathematical proof, this gripping, thought-provoking novel will keep you thinking long after the last page has been turned.” Darcy Jacobs, Family Circle “Michelle Richmond strikes the perfect balance of rural past and urban present in her fiction. As a native of Alabama (and now a San Francisco diehard), she takes a unique approach to her characters, at once delicate and deliberate, that’s full of city sensibilities and venturous diction. No One You Know, Richmond’s third novel, is a family saga set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s café culture and intelligentsia.” Laureen Mahler for Flavorpill
“NYT bestselling author Michelle Richmond is a bit of a chimera: her novels certainly have mainstream, commercial appeal but there’s often a dark core to them, along with influences that include Italo Calvino and Paul Auster. This gives them a lot more depth than the breezy covers might suggest. Her latest, No One You Know, is as much Borgesian mystery as it is the story of a complex relationship between a woman and her sibling.” Jeff VanderMeer (City of Saints and Madmen) for Amazon Editors’ Blog “Richmond’s The Year of Fog was a bestseller, and her follow-up, a tale of love, loss and betrayal, is even more compulsively readable…A mesmerizer that delves into how little we sometimes know about the ones we love.” Caroline Leavitt for Dame Magazine “This novel may seem at first to be genre fiction, but it is in fact literary fiction, the best sort. Richmond explores the devastating effects of grief and survivor guilt. She demonstrates how little, really, we know about even the people closest to us. ” Don Noble for Alabama Public Radio “This novel hits all the right buttons—incredible olfactory descriptions of coffee, a trustworthy narrator, great villain, suspenseful plot, fear of math… guard it carefully. If you leave it lying around, someone will pick it up, start reading, and never put it down until the end.” Anita Garner for Alabama Writers’ Forum “Richmond’ novels have a commercial mainstream appeal with literary depth…The authenticity and psychological accessibility of Richmond’s characters propels the plot, keeping the reader hooked to the last page.” Reba McMellon for The Mississippi Press
About NO ONE YOU KNOW: In a remote village in Nicaragua, two Americans meet. Ellie is a coffee buyer, an inveterate traveler and incapable of trust. Peter is a ruined academic. And their meeting is not by chance. More than twenty years ago, Ellie’s sister Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered in a case that was never solved. In the aftermath of Lila’s death, Ellie entrusted her most intimate feelings to a man who turned the story into a best-selling true crime book. In it, Peter was named the killer.
Now, as rain beats down on the steaming rooftops of the village, Peter leaves Ellie a gift of the notebook that Lila carried everywhere. Ellie will use the notebook, filled with mathematical equations, to begin a search that seems to have been waiting for her all these years. It will lead her to a centuries-old mathematical puzzle Lila was trying to solve, a lover no one knew she had, the motives and fate of the man who profited from her family’s s anguish.
Ellie makes a series of discoveries, from the eloquent truths of numbers to confessions of love, pain and loss. A novel about the stories and lies that strangers and lovers tell—and the secrets we keep from ourselves.
A featured alternate selection of the Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and the Mystery Guild
Also available in audio and as an e-book
The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress
Winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award
University of Massachusetts Press, 2001
“The stories in Michelle Richmond’s first collection spin artfully off the life of a single character; smart and adept.” The New York Times
“Richmond’s writing is perceptive and heartfelt, her subjects at once edgy and familiar. This is a winning debut.” Publishers Weekly
“A stunning collection. I am left with a vivid array of visions long remembered afterward.” Jill McCorkle
“Remember this name: Michelle Richmond. Impressive talent and emotional range. Richmond writes with grace, calm, a refreshing sense of playfulness.” The San Francisco Chronicle
“This collection has a novel’s heft;These lives are shaped by fate and place, forces hauntingly evoked by this talented young writer.” The Boston Globe
Read an in-depth review of The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress by Tripp Reade at The Blue Iris Journal. Read the write-up in the New York Times Book Review here. Read the title story here in Other Voices.
Dream of the Blue Room
MacAdam/Cage, 2003; German release, 2004
Read an excerpt in USA Today.
Read the story behind the novel at Backstory.
“A dreamy, haunting work with a deeply personal feel. Any time a work of fiction raises our sights to higher truts, as this one does, the writer has done her job.†Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Some childhood relationships are so fulfilling they shape our lives and leave us wondering why they didn’t last longer. Richmond captures, explores, and intertwines these bonds so elegantly, you might even think the relationships are your own.†USA Today
“Intelligent, original, complex.†The San Francisco Chronicle
“A complex and nimbly fashioned first novel.†Kirkus Reviews
“The book is finely crafted and compelling, and its emotions resonate true and clear .†Booklist
“With the slow build-up of a mystery, the exquisite pain of a coming-of-age novel, the masterful images of a travel writer, and a darkness that is true to the Southern Gothic, Dream of a Blue Room is a work of wonderfully chimeric form. ” Joanna Pearson, Small Spiral Notebook
Publishers of No One You Know in translation:
Random House Germany/Diana, La Esfera De Los Libros (Spain), Archipel (The Netherlands), Videograf (Poland). Also soon to be available from Ebury in England.
Michelle Richmond’s latest novel, NO ONE YOU KNOW, is just out in paperback. Read the first chapter. Purchase signed copies. Visit the book club page for reading group guides and more. There’s music on each page of this website; just give it a few seconds to load.
Michelle’s previous books are the New York Times best seller THE YEAR OF FOG
has been published in ten languages and is in development with Newmarket Films; the novel Dream of the Blue Room; and the award-winning story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress.
PURCHASE MICHELLE’S BOOKS HERE.
“Thoroughly riveting… thoughtfully explores family dynamics, the ripple effects of tragedy, and the importance of the stories we tell.” Booklist, starred review
“Richmond never strikes a false note in No One You Know…an intelligent, emotionally convincing tale about a family tragedy and the process of storytelling.” Boston Globe
“A terrific literary mystery.” The Daily Mail
“This thoughtful, gripping page turner grabs the reader’s attention from the first chapter.” Library Journal
“Quietly captivating .” Publishers Weekly
“Addictive.” Denver Post
“Michelle Richmond is one of those authors who force you to keep reading even when you should be doing other things. You just have to know what happens next!” Lynn Carey, Contra Costa Times
author photo by Misty Richmond