Golden State
ISBN: 978-0385343282
- Reading group guide for Golden State
- Interview, Huffington Post UK
- Golden State Playlist on Largehearted Boy
About This Book
“Mesmerizing and intricate, Richmond’s dissection of a California on the violent brink of secession from the nation provides the backdrop to her deeper inspection of the uneasy, fragile relationship between siblings…a riveting read.” Booklist, starred review
Doctor Julie Walker has just signed her divorce papers when she receives news that her younger sister, Heather, has gone into labor. Though theirs is a strained relationship, Julie sets out for the hospital to be at her sister’s side—no easy task since the streets of San Francisco have erupted into chaos. Today is the day that Californians are voting on whether or not to secede from the United States. It is also the day that Julie will find herself at the epicenter of a violent standoff with a former lover who has become obsessed with her.
Throughout the ordeal, Julie’s estranged husband, desperate for reconciliation, sends out coded messages from the radio station where he is the well-known Voice of Midnight.
GOLDEN STATE takes readers on a journey over the course of a single, unforgettable day. Five years in the making, GOLDEN STATE is both a literary thriller and a meditation on marriage, love, and loyalty. Like The Year of Fog, it is a page-turner with a philosophical bent.
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Praise for Golden State
“There’s no denying the suspenseful thrill.” Washington Times
“[An] amazing, turbulent novel woven of disparate threads… Nearly every feature of this mesmerizing novel is provocative, as Richmond explores the fragmented, hopeful lives of complex characters. This is gripping, multilayered must-read fiction.” Andrea Tarr for Library Journal, starred review
“An interesting and sometimes-disturbing story exploring how a person’s anticipated path can change and examining the choices people must make in order to move forward. Skillfully written.” Kirkus Reviews (read the review)
“Richmond delivers a page-turner…” San Jose Mercury
“Golden State‘s fast-moving plot combines political turmoil, a birth, a hostage situation, and a woman’s struggle to find inner strength after divorce…a perfect summer page-turner! ” Coastal Living Magazine May Book Club pick
“An exquisitely wrought piece of storytelling that is sure to linger in the mind long after the last page is read…in the hands of talented author Michelle Richmond, we very soon find ourselves completely invested and onboard…A many-layered page-turner that is emotionally resonant and satisfying, enriched by a playlist of songs composing a mental soundtrack that music lovers will embrace.” Bookreporter (read the review)
Thanks to a terrific reading by Kathe Mazur, the Golden State audiobook won an Earphones Award from Audiofile Magazine. Listen to a sample.
“Narrator Kathe Mazur makes Dr. Julie Walker a sympathetic character whose familial, professional, and romantic relationships are too intense to switch off.” Audiofile Magazine
A Target Emerging Authors selection and a Booksamillion Book Club pick.
“A stirring look at the ties that bind husband-wife, mother-child and even sisters, and what happens when they’re torn asunder. Set in a San Francisco chafing with unrest both political and personal, the world Richmond creates is exquisitely charged with regret and hope.” –Family Circle
“This is the kind of book you want to read slowly–savoring the deeply believable characters, the beautifully described San Francisco setting, the strangeness (and rightness) of its all taking place on the day California may vote to secede from the nation–but instead you read it in a mad rush to find out where this incredibly talented writer is taking you.” Ann Packer, bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Songs Without Words
“So imaginative, so heartfelt, so deftly made–a masterful braid of memory and urgency. Richmond is in top form, and has made a book of exquisite grace. Certain to be on everyone’s list.” Andrew Sean Greer, bestselling author of The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
“In Golden State, Michelle Richmond slices to the heart of love in so many of its permutations…I was swept up in this lovely, poignant novel, my sadness at its end only mitigated by my pleasure of having experienced its many gifts.” Ayelet Waldman, New York Times bestselling author of Red Hook Road and Bad Mother
“I hadn’t read such a gripping, bittersweet, moving novel in ages. Golden State sweeps you up, whisks you away and doesn’t let you go till the very end. Michelle Richmond, author of the unforgettable “The Year of Fog”, does it again, and all I can say is “Merci!” Tatiana de Rosnay, NYT bestselling author of Sarah’s Key, A Secret Kept, and The Other Story
“A breathtaking read and one I’ll not soon forget…” Melanie Benjamin, NYT bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife and Alice I Have Been
“A hauntingly original, ticking time bomb of a story...Dazzlingly smart and moving, Golden State doesn’t just shine, it blazes.” Caroline Leavitt, NYT bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow
“Riveting and evocative, GOLDEN STATE understands that love is built on fault lines, and the smallest choice to connect anyway is so valiant and so beautiful. Julie Walker is a bold, broken, flawed, and utterly compelling heroine who hurls her whole weight upon the fragile threads of human connection. I was unable to breathe properly or stop reading, desperate to know what would break and what would hold. Richmond is a writer of rare vision and grace, and GOLDEN STATE is her best book yet. I couldn’t put it down.”Joshilyn Jackson, NYT bestselling author of A Grown Up Kind of Pretty and Gods in Alabama
“Under the pulsing beat of so much drana–a hostage situation, a city in chaos–there’s the quiet thrum of a deeper story: with an unraveling marriage and a damaged sibling relationship, can Michelle Richmond’s heroine find the strength to survive? GOLDEN STATE is a powerful, riveting and heartfelt novel, an ode to San Francisco and to the fierceness of the human spirit.” Ellen Sussman, NYT bestselling author of French Lessons and The Paradise Guest House
“Beautifully written, Golden State is a tender portrait of loss, marriage and sisterhood, all set against a gripping backdrop sure to keep readers’ hearts in their throats as the story unfolds.” Cathy Marie Buchanan, author of The Painted Girls
“Richmond is a brave writer. When trust is shattered, she’s bold to say that forgiveness isn’t always possible. But her character is brave too, and her struggle to survive such total upheaval is an amazing read.” Lydia Netzer, author of Shine Shine Shine
“In Golden State, Michelle Richmond piercingly focuses on a single terrifying day in the life of a woman determined to save the ones she loves against terrible odds, as the city around them crumbles. A fierce and luminous story about love, loss, family, and forgiveness.” Carla Buckley, author of The Deepest Secret
“This is a thoughtful book about how past circumstances change us into the people we are today, for the good or bad. Julie is a sympathetic and relatable character, and readers will definitely feel for her as she goes through her life-changing day.” Parkersburg News and Sentinel
“There’s no denying the suspenseful thrill…..The writer does all things well, from plot to setting…to, above all, characterization.” John Greenya for The Washington Times
“Seldom have we seen a publishing house so excited about an upcoming title, bolstered by starred reviews from such heavy hitters as Library Journal and Booklist, and blurbs from a dozen best-selling authors…In Golden State, Julie is a just-divorced doctor at the VA hospital in San Francisco who’s trying to make her way across the city to grudgingly deliver her troublesome younger sister’s baby, due any time now. But the city is in turmoil, as it’s the day to vote to determine if California will secede. Along the way, Julie confronts an old boyfriend and is caught up in a hostage situation. This one looks ripe for reading groups.” Allen Pierleoni for the Sacramento Bee
“Golden State is a book that deftly combines delicate matters of the heart with a heart-thumping hostage situation in the middle of a state and national crisis. The creative synergy isn’t so much about the suspense of one moment as it is about the life-changing events that can erupt without warning and change everything thought to be matter-of-fact. Life has no preparation manual, no guide to follow when there is disruption. What happens next is entirely up to those involved. Highly recommended to all.” Seacoast Reads
“Told with intelligence and lucidity…Hum is disquieting and masterful, emblematic of a book given over to the study of couplings come undone.” Rikki Ducornet, in the foreword to Hum Thirteen years after the publication of her first story collection, The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Richmond returns with Hum, a collection of ten stories that examine love, lust, and loyalty from surprising angles. In “Hum,” a young couple that is paid to live in a house filled with surveillance equipment becomes “quietly lost to each other,” as the wife’s infatuation with the subject of their surveillance turns to obsession. In “Medicine,” a woman grieving over the death of her sister finds her calling as a manual medical caregiver. In “Boulevard,” a couple who has been trying to have a child for seven years finds themselves in an unnamed country at the height of a revolution, summoned there by the enigmatic H. “Scales,” the story of a woman who falls in love with a man whose body is covered with scales, parses the intersection of pain and pleasure. The narrator of “Lake” must choose whether to walk in the footsteps of her famous grandfather, The Great Amphibian, who disappeared while performing a feat of daring in Lake Michigan. What does it mean to be heroic? How much should one sacrifice in the name of love? These questions and more are explored with tenderness, wit, and unerring precision in Hum. “These stories are mesmerizing, sensual…beautifully imagined tales that lead us from the familiar to the intimately strange. Richmond writes as if she lives comfortably in this world and another dreamy, concurrent dimension that is achingly just beyond our ken.”—Brad Watson, author of Aliens in the Prime of Their LivesHum: Stories – winner of the Truman Capote Prize
About This Book
Winner of the Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize
The Year of Fog
ISBN: 9780385340120
About This Book
The international bestseller about memory, obsession, and one woman’s search for a missing child.
“The book of the summer. If you read only one book, read The Year of Fog.” Telematin, France
“Impossible to put down.” News of the World (best books of the year)
“Gripping. Grade: A.” The Washington Post
“A mesmerizing novel of loss and grief, hope and redemption, and the endurance of love.” Library Journal, starred review (Best books of the year)
“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
“Compulsively readable…both believable and bittersweet.” Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post
“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
““Mesmerising and harrowing… Richmond has established herself as the mistress of the kind of literary mystery that reads like a fine thriller but with added insight and wisdom.” ~Daily Mailr-part harmony going throughout her novel: it’s part mystery, has a lot of science bits about the brain and camera function in it, contains about three love stories, and is lyrically philosophical. Too intellectual to be a fast read, too compelling to be a slow one, all I can say is Richmond may well have invented a new genre: smartlit.” Wendy Welch, Little Book Store of Big Stone Gap
“A harrowing, beautifully written story of a photographer and soon-to-be stepmom whose momentary lapse in attention results in the disappearance of her fiance’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.
“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
“Mesmerising and harrowing… Richmond has established herself as the mistress of the kind of literary mystery that reads like a fine thriller but with added insight and wisdom.” ~Daily Mail, UK
“The gripping story of the search for a missing child.” Radio France
“Psychologically sophisticated suspense.” ~Freundin, Germany
“Intimate and exciting…a good, long, fascinating metaphysical novel.” Benzine Magazine, France
“Shines with a pleasing literary style, a quiet narrative and intense characters.” WDR5, Germany
“Richmond masterfully conjures feelings of love and loss.” Paisajes, Spain.
“Intriguing.” Que Leer, Spain.
“With sensitivity, Michelle Richmond examines the fragility of our own stories and the role of memory.” Lalibre, Belgium
“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
“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
“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
“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
- A Kirkus Reviews Top Pick for Reading Groups
- A New York Times bestseller
- An international bestseller (see foreign editions)
- Best Books of the Year, Library Journal
- Best Books of the Year, News of the World
- A finalist for Elle Prix de Lectrices
- A San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book
- More than 500,000 copies sold in the U.S.
- The official selection of Silicon Valley Reads 2011
- A Target Bookmarked Club pick
- Now in its 27th trade paperback printing
ISBN: 978-0385340144 “Heartbreaking and compelling…A thoroughly riveting literary thriller.” Booklist, starred review “An excellent, emotionally intelligent literary mystery.” London Daily Mail All her life Ellie Enderlin had been known as Lila’s sister—until the day Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered, and the shape of their family changed forever. Twenty years later, Ellie is a professional coffee buyer who has never put down roots. When, in a chance meeting, she comes into possession of the notebook that Lila carried everywhere, Ellie returns home to finally discover the truth about her sister’s death—a search that will lead her to Lila’s secret lover, to the motives and fate of a man who profited from their family’s grief, and ultimately to the deepest secrets even sisters keep from each other. A Booklist “Great Books for Book Groups” Selection: This title proved to be a sure bet and the discussion was long and lively…this novel could be used by book discussion groups who do not think of themselves as a crime fiction discussion group. But they will. “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. 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 “An absorbing read made urgent by needing to know ‘whodunit’. But it is much more than that, being a tale of family, loss, love and misused trust. A clever, unusual read.” Sarah Broadhurst for The Bookseller, Britain, June 2009 debut of the month See my tour of the city behind the book in San Francisco: My Kind of Town for the Telegraph. “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 “An exciting psychological thriller.” Tina Magazine, Germany (Read an interview about this book in German here.) A featured alternate selection of the Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and the Mystery Guild. Also available in audio and as an e-book No One You Know
About This Book
ISBN: 978-0553386547 Jenny and Amanda Ruth were best friends in a small Alabama town until Amanda Ruth was murdered. Now, fourteen years later, Jenny has traveled with her husband to China to scatter Amanda Ruth’s ashes and finally fulfill her friend’s dream of visiting her Chinese father’s homeland. It is also, Jenny hopes, an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged husband, Dave. Jenny and Dave arrive in China in the midst of the Three Gorges Dam project and embark on a cruise up the Yangtze River. Her first night on the ship, Jenny meets Graham, a man with whom she shares and instant connection. After Dave makes it clear that the marriage cannot be saved, Jenny falls into a passionate affair with Graham. As the ship moves slowly through the heart of the country, Jenny watches the landscape change before her eyes, as ancient cities are inundated with water. Jenny’s own memories–of her intense intimacy with Amanda Ruth, and the small town prejudice that threatened their friendship–begin to surface. When Graham reveals his own reason for being on the ship, Jenny is faced with an unthinkable choice. Dream of the Blue Room is a deeply erotic novel that raises provocative questions about what we choose to bury, and what rises to the surface. It is also a lush journey into a landscape that, since the publication of this novel in 2003, has been inexorably altered by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.Dream of the Blue Room
About This Book
