Parables is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of
Bound on Earth by award-winning LDS author, Angela Hallstrom, trade paperback, 214 pp., $12.95 (February).
Portions of
Bound on Earth have won awards from Irreantum magazine (2003); Dialogue’s “Best of the Year Award: Fiction”(2005); honors from the Utah Arts Council (2006); and the SaltFlats Annual Emerging Writer Fiction Contest (2007).
Advance praise for
Bound on EarthLevi Peterson, author of
The Backslider and editor of
Dialogue—
“In this novel, Angela Hallstrom demonstrates an admirable mastery of the art of fiction. In essence, it is the history of an extended Mormon family. Composed of vignettes—some of which have been published as stories—the novel advances from the present into the future, retreats momentarily to the past, or works laterally to include nearly simultaneous episodes. The point of view shifts deftly among a widowed grandmother, her son and daughter-in-law, their three daughters and their husbands. The style is strong and functional, unerring in its cadence and nicely balanced between the formal and the colloquial.
“The subtle background to this novel is the Mormon world view, established without preaching or assumptions of superiority. But it presents a far from idealized vision of reality. By moments the members of this extended family writhe with conflict, tension, depression, self-pity, and misbehavior. The attempts of the strong willed mother to guide and intervene often disrupt rather than heal. Her husband nearly succumbs to the veiled allurement of a seductive sister in their ward. A teen aged daughter conceives a baby out of wedlock. Another daughter is distraught by the birth of a fourth son, deeply disappointed that she has not at last borne a daughter. Yet another daughter marries—and determines to stay with—a bi-polar husband who periodically lapses into abuse. Yet ultimately their underlying bond with one another—their willingness to affirm whoever claims a place among them—triumphs. Though bound on earth, this is a family that will endure in eternity.
“If there’s a lesson to be learned from this novel, it’s that the pain and endurance required to create a family are worth it. In the final vignette, the dying matriarch of the family attends the celebration of the wedding anniversary of her son and daughter-in-law. She is greatly comforted just to be there, watching while ‘wives turn to husbands, fathers to children, and life keeps spinning forward, loose and free as a ribbon off a spool.’ In heaven, she concludes, ‘there will be children there, and music, and cake, and husbands and wives and daughters and sons.’ That is a picture of eternity that she can accept.”
Robert Van Wagoner, author of
Dancing Naked and Utah Arts Council judge
“In this book of interconnected narratives, the language is beautiful and transparent, evocative in its descriptiveness. Its characters are complex and well-rendered, its ambitions serious and sincere. A compelling exploration of one family’s struggles toward intimacy and self-awareness in a world that pulls people asunder, Bound on Earth succeeds on many levels.”
Kathryn Lynard Soper, editor of
Segullah: Writings by Latter-day Saint Women “Combining deep emotional candor and spare, elegant prose, Hallstrom’s debut novel is a poignant exploration of family, faith, and the ties that bind.”
Sheila O’Connor, author of
Where No Gods Came and winner of the Minnesota Book Award
“Bound on Earth is a book in which the reader draws connections to the self; we see our own struggles, betrayals, hard loves, desire. It is a beautiful, honest chronicle of one family’s journey through time.”
As a special prepublication offer, we’re offering the book at half price ($6.50 plus $2.00 shipping) to all AMLers through February 15. Write to Parables, PO Box 58, Woodsboro, MD 21798.
Check out our entire backlist at
www.parablespub.com. Or visit the authors' websites:
www.angelahallstrom.com.
Beth
