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"A memoir of the haunting and redemptive events of the acclaimed writer's life--the betrayal of a con-man father; a murder-suicide in his family's house; the presence of an oystercatcher--each one, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction As with many of us, the life of novelist Howard Norman has had its share of incidents of ""arresting strangeness."" Yet few of us connect these moments, as Norman has done in this spellbinding memoir, to show how life tangles with the psyche to become art. Norman's story begins with a portrait, both harrowing and hilarious, of a Midwest boyhood summer working in a bookmobile, in the shadow of a grifter father and under the erotic tutelage of his brother's girlfriend. His life story continues in places as far-flung as the Arctic, where he spends part of a decade as a translator of Inuit tales--including the story of a soapstone carver turned into a goose whose migration-time lament is, ""I hate to leave this beautiful place""--and in his beloved Point Reyes, California, as a student of birds. In the Arctic, he receives news over the radio that ""John Lennon was murdered tonight in the city of New York in the USA."" And years later, in Washington, DC, another act of deeply felt violence occurs in the form of a murder-suicide when Norman and his wife loan their home to a poet and her young son. Norman's story is also stitched together with moments of uncanny solace. Of life in his Vermont farmhouse Norman writes, ""Everything I love most happens most every day."" In the hands of Howard Norman, author of The Bird Artist and What Is Left the Daughter, life's arresting strangeness is made into a profound, creative, and redemptive memoir."

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9781482949377

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Howard Norman is a three-time winner of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a winner of the Lannan Award for fiction. His novels The Northern Lights and The Bird Artist were nominated for National Book Awards. His books have been translated into twelve languages. He lives in Washington, DC, and Vermont with his wife and daughter. Jim Meskimen is a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows. He acted in Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon for director Ron Howard, both of which were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. His television appearances include The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Friends, Lie to Me, Criminal Minds, and Parks and Recreation. He is also a painter, award-winning audiobook narrator, and audiobook director for Galaxy Audio.

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