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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
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INDELIBLE

Adelia Saunders

This beautiful debut treats everybody's need to connect and to belong - even as we're afraid of allowing others into our lives.

Richard Beart is a disgraced schoolteacher who has travelled from Colorado to Paris in order to find out the truth about his mother, the famous novelist Inga Beart. Even though everybody is telling him that Inga abandoned her only son at birth, a sharply etched memory of her striking red shoes sustains Richard’s belief that he did see his mother again when he was a little boy. As Richard starts his melancholy investigation, his estranged son, Neil, is about to embark on his own journey of discovery in Paris, where he has found a research job for the summer. But first, Neil has to make a long overdue trip to Swindon of all places in order to look up Magdalena, the daughter of an old friend of his father’s. In Neil’s view the two old people had a pointlessly elaborate scheme to exchange Christmas presents across continents. When Neil meets Magdalena, it’s immediately clear that she’s unlike anybody he’s ever known. Whether it’s her remarkable eyes, her aura of heartbreak, or her charming Eastern European accent. Neil is drawn to her but too awkward to be able to articulate his feelings. And Magdalena is drawn to Neil, but for a reason he can’t even begin to understand. It holds the key not only to his future happiness but also to the secret of Inga Beart’s tragic life. SHE’S LONG GONE marks the arrival of a major new talent. It's as lyrical as Nicole Krauss’ THE HISTORY OF LOVE, as precisely observed as Ian McEwan’s finest novels, and with a dash of magical realism reminiscent of Eowyn Ivey’s THE SNOW CHILD. Adelia Saunders has a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a bachelor’s degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has taught English in Paris, written for an independent newswire at the United Nations, and assisted an agricultural economist in Kampala, Uganda. She grew up in Durango, Colorado and currently lives with her family in New York City, where she splits her time between work for an international think tank and raising two small children. SHE’S LONG GONE is her first novel.

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Book Published 2017-01-01 by Bloomsbury

Comments

It’s a great novel of serendipities, coincidences, and connections, both missed and made. At times dark, even disturbing, and at other times tender and sweet, it’s a beautiful and engrossing story of intertwined lives. Indelible stayed with me long after I finished it—I did not expect it to consume me quite like it did.

In her remarkable debut, Adelia Saunders develops an intriguing idea into an extraordinary book.

“Richly detailed and highly observant, Saunders' debut takes its time revealing how the lives of a famous novelist, a disgraced English teacher, an aspiring historian, and a haunted young woman intersect. . . . Saunders transforms what could be a simple tale of fate and coincidence into a compelling meditation on the horrors of the Holocaust, the difficulties of forgiveness, and the complications of memory. Fans of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife will love Saunders' debut, which takes up the mantle of myth, history, and storytelling with beautiful, sure-footed prose.”

In Indelible, Adelia Saunders has created a stunning debut novel so beautifully written, richly plotted and dense with secrets that the moment I finished reading it, I wanted to pick it up and start again. The premise is fascinating—one of the main characters sees names, facts and dates written on the skin of every person she meets—but the novel is about so much more than that. The true delight in reading Indelible lies in untangling the delicately woven connections between characters, between the past and the present, and between what we think we know and what we discover is true. This is the kind of book that I had been waiting to read, and I know I’ll love it more each time I pick it up.

Bloomsbury has a real find on their hands in Adelia Saunders. She weaves three storylines together so skillfully that, as I got glimpses of where this or that thread was going, I actually teared up at the sheer perfection of the plotting. Indelible is a great title for this novel, as that's just what it is - that rare story that will leave its mark on you long after the final page is turned

Saunders is an exciting new talent. Indelible is more than a refreshing take on the clichéd star crossed lovers, it is a poignant and beautiful story of a damaged cast of characters and the ways in which seemingly chance meetings can forever change our paths in life.

If I had to pick one word to describe Indelible, it would be "compelling," but if I'm allowed to expound, I'd say that Adelia Saunders has created three heartbreaking characters whom she treats with great generosity and compassion. Her remarkable human insight and unusual premise combine to provide quite the literary treat.

...singular debut... The eloquence and appeal of her language is matched only by the sheer inventiveness of her tale. Falling perfectly into the sweet spot between the literary and the fantastic, she grounds the uncanny and unexplainable in the emotional reality of those indelible characters. You've never seen anything like this.

Adelia Saunders has a unique gift with her characters—she's created an undeniable sympathy for each one while balancing the simmering underbelly of futures and fates. Magdalena, who walks without glasses to avoid reading the inevitable futures of strangers she comes across, is especially fleshed out; asking what I think we've all asked at some point, magic gift or no—am I special or am I just crazy?

A woman's mysterious ability to see people's deepest truths and secrets written on their bodies is the center of this creative and engrossing first novel. Are chance encounters really just destiny being fulfilled? Are our earliest memories real or just pieces of what we have been told or think we remember? A wonderful story with a beautiful Parisian setting.