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Sebastian Ritscher
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www.nancypearl.com

GEORGE AND LIZZIE

Nancy Pearl

This debut novel by America's most beloved librarian, Nancy Pearl, features an unlikely marriage at its defining moment.
George and Lizzie have radically different understandings of what love and marriage should be. George grew up in a warm and loving family in Tulsa, Oklahoma; his father an orthodontist, his mother a stay-at-home mom. While Lizzie grew up as the only child of two famous psychologists who related to Lizzie more as an in-house experiment than a child to love. Despite their differences, they've always been united by friends, family and their shared appreciation of Lizzie's devastating sense of humor. But when a dark secret from Lizzie's past resurfaces, she'll find out the true mettle of the relationship she and George have so painstakingly built over a decade together.

An emotionally riveting debut by America’s most beloved librarian, George and Lizzie is an intimate story of love, adulthood and the making and unravelling of an unlikely marriage.

A CULTURAL ICON: Nancy Pearl has been a librarian for more than three decades. A regular commentator about books on NPR's Morning Edition, Pearl is beloved around America for her charm and wisdom. The New York Times calls her "the talk of librarian circles” and readers can't get enough of her recommendations while bookstores and libraries offer standing room only whenever she visits. Since the release of a Librarian Action Figure modeled in her likeness, Nancy Pearl has become a rock star among readers and the tastemaker people turn to when deciding what to read next.

A SOPHISTICATED EXPLORATION OF AN IMPERFECT MARRIAGE: GEORGE AND LIZZIE is a sharp character study of a husband and wife whose pasts loom over their marriage. Pearl expertly crafts a smart, edgy and unexpectedly funny exploration of the dark secrets that can threaten even the most solid relationships.

PERFECT FOR BOOKCLUBS: Beautifully written, GEORGE AND LIZZIE will appeal to readers of upmarket fiction and to bookclubs looking for gripping yet accessible reads in the vein of Lisa Jewell’s The House We Grew Up In. Fans will love our complicated and vulnerable protagonists, and with meaty topics to mine about first loves, lasting love, and growing up, bookclubs will have a field day with George and Lizzie.

A WELL CONNECTED, HIGLY PROMOTEABLE AUTHOR: Pearl is active on social media, with more than 12,000 followers on Twitter. On her monthly television show, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl, she has interviewed authors as diverse as E. L. Doctorow, Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett, and Terry Pratchett. Her many friends in the author community are chomping at the bit to provide advance blurbs for Nancy’s book and to support her in their social medial channels.

Nancy Pearl is known as “America’s Librarian.” She speaks about the pleasures of reading to libraries, literacy organizations, and community groups throughout the world and comments on books regularly on NPR's Morning Edition. Born and raised in Detroit, she received her library degree (MLS) in 1967 from the University of Michigan. She also received an MA in history from Oklahoma State University in 1977. Among her many honors and awards are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal; and the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. She co-hosts the podcast That Stack of Books, and appears weekly on KUOW FM in Seattle. She also hosts a monthly television show, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl. She lives in Seattle with her husband.
Available products
Book

Published 2017-09-05 by Touchstone

Book

Published 2017-09-05 by Touchstone

Comments

Nancy Pearl understands the desperate, confused, needy heart that beats under the surface of even the most dysfunctional of relationships, and exposes it with wit and genuine love. Oh, and you’ll never think about football the same way again.

Pearl skillfully explores love in its many facets true, unrequited, long-standing, parental, platonic and love for oneself. In the end, George & Lizzie is a tribute to love, warts and all.

As sparkling as Prosecco, as jubilantly quirky and inventive a love story as you could ever want, and a jigsaw puzzle you never want to finish—as in what makes Lizzie and George who they are? And how will they fit together? What can I say? If I could marry a novel, this wise, witty and rapturously inventive book would be it.

[A]n homage to true love, painful childhood experiences, and emotional scars that last a lifetime. It's a story of forgiveness, especially for one's self..Extraordinary.

Nancy Pearl has long been a bright light in the literary worldwhat a delight to bask in the glow of her debut novel. GEORGE AND LIZZIE is a richly absorbing portrait of a perfectly imperfect marriage; a wryly observed story of family, love, and absurdity; and a deft consideration of the moments that shadow and shape our lives, and just might take on lives of their own.

With eccentric characters, relationship drama, and a vivid sense of place, this Anne Tyler-esque debut novel is sure to interest and please Pearl's many fans.

Nancy Pearl became famous as the go-to person for book lovers asking: What should I read next? With her first novel, Pearl makes the answer to that question easy. Read GEORGE AND LIZZIE. This smart, sexy novel has a smashing premise, an engaging cast of characters, and a voice that propels you from first page to last with its wit, insight into secrets, families, and football, and its unrelenting energy.

Everybody who loves books loves librarian Nancy Pearl, and now she has written a debut novel that I adore. GEORGE AND LIZZIE is a fresh, sweet, funny, and completely charming love story between two people, two families, and two unlikely paths in life, which somehow find their way to each other, entwined and braided as challah. To read this novel is to see family, love, and life in a new light. Brava, Nancy, George, and Lizzie!

GEORGE AND LIZZIE is an unusual story about a marriage, except that really it's a story about growing up, except that really it's a story about a cast of uncommon, bewitching characters I could have happily read about for a month. It's smart, funny, warmly sketched, cleverly put together, engagingly told, and sums to something wonderful and unexpected. I will be recommending it unrelentingly to everyone I know.

Here's a novelist whose name Seattle knows: Pearl, surely the only former Seattle librarian to have her own action figure, is making her fiction debut with George and Lizzie.

The path George and Lizzie's relationship takes toward wholeness points to truths about the way people self-sabotage, the complexity of love, and the importance of being able to let go of the past.

This novel gradually becomes suffused with something ineffable, but abiding. Is it self-forgiveness? Detachment? Wisdom? This is an interesting debut.

Nancy Pearl has written the sort of delightful novel that she loves to read. GEORGE AND LIZZIE overflows with humor and heart, with quirks and eccentricities, with unforgettable characters on a par with those she’s celebrated in countless reader recommendations through the years. Her story daringly and playfully jumbles time and convention, gathering heft and humor as it unfolds. The end result is an irresistible debut by a born storyteller.

Sweet, funny and sometimes heartbreaking, this tender novel is a meditation on the reality of love and relationships.

Pearl dramatizes a complicated and deeply illuminating union of opposites and conducts profound inquiries into the self, family, empathy, and love. The result is a charming, edgy, and many faceted novel of penetrating humor and resonant insight.

A quirky, quietly unconventional love story that will be certain to prompt much discussion among readers about the choices its characters make.