
Rebecca Makkai is the author of 2023's New York Times bestselling I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, as well as the novels THE GREAT BELIEVERS, THE BORROWER and THE HUNDRED-YEAR HOUSE, and the collection MUSIC FOR WARTIME. THE GREAT BELIEVERS was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize among other honors, A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca teaches graduate fiction writing at Northwestern University, UNR Tahoe, and Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English; and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago. She lives in Chicago and Vermont. Visit her at RebeccaMakkai.com or on twitter@rebeccamakkai.
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.The Great Believers has become a critically acclaimed, indelible piece of literature; it was selected as one of New York Times Best 10 Books of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Book, a Buzzfeed Book of the Year, a Skimm Reads pick, and a pick for the New York Public Library’s Best Books of the year.
A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?
Meet the Devohrs: Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents’ wealth but nevertheless finds herself living in their carriage house; Gracie, her mother, who claims she can tell your lot in life by looking at your teeth; and Bruce, her step-father, stockpiling supplies for the Y2K apocalypse and perpetually late for his tee time. Then there’s Violet Devohr, Zee’s great-grandmother, who they say took her own life somewhere in the vast house, and whose massive oil portrait still hangs in the dining room.The Hundred-Year House unfolds a generational saga in reverse, leading the reader back in time on a literary scavenger hunt as we seek to uncover the truth about these strange people and this mysterious house. With intelligence and humor, a daring narrative approach, and a lovingly satirical voice, Rebecca Makkai has crafted an unforgettable novel about family, fate and the incredible surprises life can offer.
Named a must-read by the Chicago Tribune , O Magazine, BuzzFeed , The Huffington Post , Minneapolis Star-Tribune , and The L MagazineNamed one of the best short story collections of 2015 by Bookpage and Kansas City StarRebecca Makkai’s first two novels, The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, have established her as one of the freshest and most imaginative voices in fiction. Now, the award-winning writer, whose stories have appeared in four consecutive editions of The Best American Short Stories, returns with a highly anticipated collection bearing her signature mix of intelligence, wit, and heart. A reality show producer manipulates two contestants into falling in love, even as her own relationship falls apart. Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young boy has a revelation about his father’s past when a renowned Romanian violinist plays a concert in their home. When the prized elephant of a traveling circus keels over dead, the small-town minister tasked with burying its remains comes to question his own faith. In an unnamed country, a composer records the folk songs of two women from a village on the brink of destruction. These transporting, deeply moving stories—some inspired by her own family history—amply demonstrate Makkai’s extraordinary range as a storyteller, and confirm her as a master of the short story form.
A reality TV show producer tries to make love happen, on- and off-screen. “The November Story” is from MUSIC FOR WARTIME by Rebecca Makkai, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.Find LeVar on Instagram Live on Monday, May 6th from 6:30-8pm Pacific, celebrating 13 seasons of LeVar Burton Reads! Join us for a Q&A and surprise guests. Follow LeVar on IG and sign up for reminders!
This Rebecca Makkai Bestselling 2 Books Set 1. The Great Believers 9780735223530 2. I Have Some Questions for You 9780593490167
Ian Drake ha dieci anni. Occhiali tondi e grande sorriso, è un lettore vorace. Lucy Hull, ventisei anni, bibliotecaria per caso in una piccola città di provincia, è discendente di rivoluzionari russi emigrati in America. Tra Ian e Lucy si stabilisce una complicità immediata. Per lui, fedelissimo della biblioteca, quegli scaffali sono un rifugio dal controllo opprimente della famiglia. E lei, convinta che i libri possano salvare la vita, aggira la censura dei genitori ultrareligiosi del ragazzo, ben felice di passare sottobanco a Ian libri «proibiti», come quelli che osano parlare di magia, specie se «scritti da Harry Potter». Quando però a Ian non basterà più fuggire con la fantasia, si farà rapire davvero. E i due diventeranno protagonisti di una loro personale avventura. In cerca, soprattutto, di sé stessi.
by Rebecca Makkai
by Rebecca Makkai
Epicka powieść o przyjaźni i odkupieniu w obliczu tragedii, finalistka nagrody Pulitzera oraz National Book Award, a przy tym jedna z najważniejszych książek ostatnich lat wg "New York Timesa", "The Washington Post" i "Entertainment Weekly".W 1985 roku młody Yale Tishman, dyrektor rozwoju chicagowskiej galerii sztuki, zamierza namieszać w środowisku amerykańskiej bohemy, wprowadzając na wystawę zbiór nadzwyczaj udanych obrazów z lat 20. Jego kariera zdaje się kwitnąć, ale wokół AIDS zbiera okrutne żniwo - przyjaciele Yalea jeden po drugim umierają i wkrótce zostaje on niemal zupełnie sam. Trzydzieści lat później Fiona, przyjaciółka Yale`a, próbuje odnaleźć w Paryżu swoją zaginioną córkę. Zatrzymuje się na pewien czas u starego przyjaciela, znanego fotografa, który przed laty uwiecznił chicagowską epidemię. Z czasem kobieta zdaje sobie sprawę, w jak wielkim stopniu wydarzenia sprzed lat mogą ukształtować nas samych i nasze relacje z najbliższymi. Losy Yale`a i Fiony przeplatają się na przestrzeni lat, zabierając tym samym czytelników w rozdzierającą podróż przez lata osiemdziesiąte aż po chaos czasów współczesnych. "Porywająca opowieść... Nie oderwiecie się od tej książki". Michael Cunningham "Wciąga i urzeka". Tea Obreht