By Molly Giles
From acclaimed brief tale author Molly Giles, writer of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated assortment Rough Translations, comes this ideal debut novel approximately one woman's lively look for identification and that means following her family's disintegration.
Set amid the woodsy affluence of Northern California, Iron Shoes incisively chronicles the coming-of-middle-age tale of Kay Sorensen, who has lived her whole existence within the shadow of her glamorous mom and dad. whilst Kay hits 40, she is by surprise smacked with the conclusion that she isn't the girl she desires to be -- and positively now not the lady her family members desires her to be. Her emotionally indifferent father won't ever forgive her for dropping by the wayside of Juilliard at eighteen; her dramatic, showstopping mom won't ever understand how she grew to become out so traditional; and her fastidious, self-controlled moment husband won't ever settle for her weak point for pork, cigarettes, and alcohol. Worst of all, Kay can't forgive herself for giving up on her goals and settling -- for a husband she doesn't love, for an amateurish church orchestra, for a dead-end task at a library certain to lose its investment. not able to shake the sensation that she's one way or the other caught, Kay lives vicariously via her free-spirited good friend Zabeth and pins her hopes for the longer term on Charles Lichtman, a beguiling stranger with whom she feels destined to have an affair. but if her mother's sickness -- possible feigned for so long as Kay can take note -- eventually takes her existence, Kay feels her ennui and stasis painfully collapse to an unnerving helplessness. wasting a lifelong crutch, she is without warning set adrift -- weightless, with out a compass, and with out wish.
along with her crystalline prose and seamless blending of gentle tragedy and laugh-out-loud humor, Molly Giles promises a deeply relocating exploration of a middle-aged lady who hasn't ever requested herself -- nor replied -- a decent query in her lifestyles. right away heartrending, hilarious, and clever, Iron Shoes is a spell binding debut novel.