Contacts: Louise Braverman, 212-366-2752
louise.braverman@us.penguingroup.com
Meredith Burks, 212-366-2274
meredith.burks@us.penguingroup.com
ALICE BLISS
A Novel
Laura Harrington
Advance Praise for ALICE BLISS:
“I put down this book and thought, there is no one like this girl, so fully and richly has Harrington brought a new Alice to life. The great sorrow, of course, is that there are many Alice Blisses out there. The power of Harrington’s richly delineated novel lies in putting a girl like Alice before us and asking us to remember how many beautiful, feisty others are staring down the long hall of adulthood with a father or a mother gone to war.”—Sarah Blake, bestselling author of The Postmistress
“…this is the story of Alice, her courage, fear, and optimism, and her heartbreaking discovery of the extent to which her father’s life will shape and guide her own.”—Publishers Weekly
“Alice is a true heroine: intelligent, passionate, strong-minded. Watching her find her way is an absorbing pleasure.” —Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street
“This book may be the Our Town of the twenty-first century.” —Anne Roiphe, author of Epilogue: A Memoir
“Laura Harrington writes with grace, humor, and uncanny wisdom about loss and resilience and the workings of the human heart. Alice’s is a voice we need to hear, telling a story that lights up a dark corner of the sky. ALICE BLISS is unforgettable.” —Rachel Kadish, author of From a Sealed Room and Tolstoy Lied
“Heartbreaking yet edged with promise, ALICE BLISS explores the wounds of war, love, and family bonds while illuminating the strength of a young girl’s spirit. A stunning debut.” —Beth Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
“Meet Alice Bliss, the heroine of Laura Harrington’s gorgeous page-turner of a first novel. Like Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Alice is destined to become a household name. Her story, a delicious tale of first kisses and the boy next door, is also a tragic tale of a girl longing for her father away at war. In luminous, haunting prose Harrington enters the minds and hearts of all of her characters, imbuing her story with a timeless wisdom.” —Charlotte Gordon, author of The Woman Who Named God and Mistress Bradstreet
“ALICE BLISS is a poignant tale about the homefront horrors of war when a father leaves his wife and two girls for a tour of duty in Iraq. It is a touching reminder of our need for community to help those left behind find inner peace in a time of war.” —JoeAnn Hart, author of Addled
“Strong storytelling and a rich emotional core.” —Jenny Downham, author of Before I Die
ALICE BLISS (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking; On-Sale: June 6, 2011; $25.95; 978-0-670-02278-6), the debut novel from award-winning playwright Laura Harrington, is a coming of age story that is both timeless and incredibly timely. Currently there are more than 300,000 teens in the US with family members who are deployed—ALICE BLISS movingly illuminates the impact of war on those left at home: children, partners, family members, and the community.
When Alice learns her father is being deployed to Iraq, she’s heartbroken. Matt Bliss is leaving just as his daughter blossoms into a full-blown teenager. She will learn to drive, shop for a dress for her first dance, and fall in love all while trying to be strong for her mother and take care of her younger sister. She is a tremendous girl, one who sneaks her way into your heart with her strength, her vulnerability, and her struggles with the trappings of being an awkward teen, confronting life without her beloved father. His scent is fading from the shirt of his she wears every day, and his phone calls are never enough.
A profoundly moving, uplifting novel ALICE BLISS is a story about those who are left at home during wartime and a teenage girl bravely facing the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Harrington is an award-winning playwright, lyricist and librettist. She teaches playwriting at MIT and lives in Gloucester, MA. ALICE BLISS, her first novel, grew out of Harrington’s one-woman musical Alice Unwrapped, which ran off-Broadway in New York and in the Minneapolis Fringe Festival in 2009.
http://www.lauraharringtonbooks.com/wp1/wp1
ALICE BLISS
A Novel
By Laura Harrington
Pamela Dorman Books / Viking ▪ On-sale: June 6, 2011 ▪ $25.95 ▪ ISBN: 978-0-670-02278-6
Also available as an e-book
For more information about ALICE BLISS or to schedule an interview with Laura Harrington, please contact:
Louise Braverman / 212.366.2752 / louise.braverman@us.penguingroup.com;
Meredith Burks / 212-366-2274 / meredith.burks@us.penguingroup.com
Please visit our website at: www.penguin.com
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
