After a tragic loss, an American woman investigates her birth family in Paris: "The novel's twists and turns are wonderfully unexpected" (Emma Straub, author of Modern Lovers).
In her early forties, Emma has recently lost her husband and daughter to a tragic auto accident. When her elderly aunt visits her Indiana home to provide comfort, and instead blurts out the news that Emma was adopted, a new kind of shock sets in.
Soon, a still-mourning Emma finds herself flying to Paris, where she will discover the twin brother whose existence she never knew about, and the identity of her birth parents-a White Russian film star of the 1920s and a French Stalinist. A story about identity and the relationship between art and life, My Life as a Silent Movie is "a beautiful, evocative novel [that] melds the magic of old movies with the redemptive power of family" (Jonis Agee,author of The Bones of Paradise).
"In this sharply drawn chronicle of grief, a woman reassembles her identity through her father's art and her brother's tenuous offer of a new life... Kercheval delves deeply into the rawest of emotions and the most wrenching of choices, richly detailing each twist and turn with grace." - Kirkus Reviews
Vorwort
A discovery that remakes a grieving woman's identity
Autorentext
Jesse Lee Kercheval is author of 12 books including Brazil, winner of the Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella Award; the poetry collection Cinema Muto, winner of the Crab Orchard Open Selection Award; and The Alice Stories, winner of the Prairie Schooner Fiction Book Prize. She teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin.
Zusammenfassung
After losing her husband and daughter in an auto accident, 42-year-old Emma flies to Paris, discovers she has a twin brother whose existence she had not known about, and learns that her birth parents weren't the Americans who raised her, but a White Russian film star of the 1920s and a French Stalinist. A story about identity and the shaping function of art, My Life as a Silent Movie presents a vividly rendered world and poses provocative questions on the relationship of art to life.