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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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BEAUTY

Frederick G. Dillen

Carol MacLean works as a corporate “undertaker” for Baxter Blume, a Mergers & Acquisitions firm in New York. She travels from factory to factory, reluctantly firing blue?collared workers that remind her of the kids she grew up with, in the hope that her boss will make good on his promise—one day, after paying her dues, she will be named CEO of one of the firm’s many holdings.
Just when it seems like her dream will finally come true, on a trip that takes her away from the city to a desperate fishing town in coastal Massachusetts, Carol gets a call from the office: “You’re out.” Those words shake Carol to her core. But with the help of townspeople and a particularly charming local fisherman, Carol begins to understand the power of life’s second acts. She becomes determined to save the factory she almost shut down. As Carol throws herself into transforming a failing company into a commercially viable business, she must choose between the job she has always wanted, and everything else—her savings, her reputation, and her chance at love.
Frederick Dillen’s perceptive and deeply empathetic novel animates one of life’s richest ironies; BEAUTY reminds us, slowly and carefully, that sometimes in pursuing what we think we want, we are often in danger of losing sight of what matters most.

Frederick G. Dillen’s short fiction has appeared in literary quarterlies and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. His first novel, Hero, was named Best First Novel of 1994 by the Dictionary of Literary Biography. His second novel, Fool, was honored by Nancy Pearl as a Book Lust Rediscoveries section in 2012.
Available products
Book

Published 2014-03-01 by Simon & Schuster

Book

Published 2014-03-01 by Simon & Schuster

Comments

Big Business, Big Boston Fish Party and Big Love. Mr. Dillen has given us a rarity: a lovely story, beautifully composed. 1 read lt with Big Pleasure.

After a career closing factories, a woman reclaims her blue-collar roots, revives a plant and saves a community...There are strong echoes of Jimmy Stewart rallying the townspeople in It‘s A Wonderful Life...Kudos to Dillen for his unusual premise.

Dramatic and emotional...And lt‘s nice to have a middle-aged heroine for a change.

A feel-good story with a dash of romance.

Dillen‘s third novel is an absorbing story of one smart, hardworking woman handling the ‘fat boys‘ of corporate leadership on their own, with masterfully developed characters and, as a bonus, a poignant romance.

BEAUTY is one of the few works of fiction I can think of that finds true drama in the world of corporate intrigue. Frederick Dillen has written an absorbing and memorable novel with an utterly original and completely convincing main character, a businesswoman who risks everything in search of something to call her own.

BEAUTY is a heart-bursting gem of a novel—a love story, a riveting tale of high stakes intrigue, and a hero's journey that spins a contemporary twist on timeless values rooted deep in the American soul. Dillen’s tightly crafted narrative is the modern working woman’s Rocky. You will root for these vivid, off-beat characters waiting to leap up from the last pages with a fist pumping cheer for their hard earned redemption."