Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
Categories

THE CLAIRVOYANTS

Karen Brown

THE CLAIRVOYANTS is the story of two sisters, Martha and Del. Growing up, Martha feels responsible for her troubled younger sister, Del, a feeling encouraged by her parents, who are always asking her to look out for her more fragile sister. Del's reckless behavior and disregard for herself and others worsens in high school, particularly after the death of a classmate, and eventually Martha is asked to help her parents carry out their decision to have Del committed to Ashley Manor. After one botched attempt at a visit, Martha has communicated with Del only via letters for years, and has meanwhile struggled to make her way through the world. Now, Martha has landed in a rented apartment in a Victorian house near the university where she's just started her first year. Away from her family for the first time, she attempts to build a new life, even as she is haunted by visions of the dead that may or may not be real. She is also tormented by the guilt she feels over her role in her sister's institutionalization. So when Del unexpectedly shows up at her front door, Martha vows to take her in and look after her properly this time. But then Martha meets and falls in love with a mysterious young photography professor and her role as Del's protector turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined. Martha struggles to balance her intense relationship with Del, and their past secrets, against her budding love interest, and her new life in a small town racked with fear after the mysterious death of a local young woman.

Karen Brown is the author of Little Sinners and Other Stories, which was named a Best Book of 2012 by Publishers Weekly, and Pins and Needles: Stories, which was the recipient of AWP's Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. Her first novel, The Longings of Wayward Girls, was published in 2013 by Washington Square Press to rave reviews. Her work has been featured in The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, The New York Times, and Good Housekeeping. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of South Florida.
Available products
Book

Published by Henry Holt

Comments

A nerve-racking, psychologically complex novel sure to haunt readers."

1.23.17 RT Book Reviews, review Brown takes her time drawing readers into the perspective of Martha Mary, a character who makes for the best kind of unreliable narrator, one where the actual facts appear to be faithfully represented but they're given to us so steeped in her perspective that it's both convincingly internally consistent and sometimes so clearly the product of willful denial. Her takes on her sister, her husband and others make for a suspensefully ambiguous story, one where the twists aren't so much shocking as harrowing confirmations of what the story's been trying to say against our narrator's will the whole time.

"Brown weaves a complex narrative with a lyrical thread of memories; [An] arresting, unsettling, and beautiful tale. Brown enchants and haunts by making the reader question every voice, every truth."

A master of intrigue, Brown (The Longings of Wayward Girls, 2013) has crafted a haunting mystery that will relentlessly push readers until the very end.

"A complex, chilling ghost story...Compelling...Brown paces the plot deliberately, building dread in both the present and past time lines as she switches between them...a thrilling read"

Psychological suspense that grabs readers from the start...complex and haunting.

Pinpoints the essence of desire, sexual and otherwise.

Pulls off a Steinbeck-ian trifecta (powerful realism, literary depth, and unpretentious storytelling).

A talent for evocative detail.