Coming of age in 1940s England, Alice's life is thrown into chaos under the shadow of the war. Forced to let go of her hopes and dreams, she finds herself uprooted to America and a life she never could have imagined.
Decades later, it is the 1990s and Alice's granddaughter Marnie is living out of a worn-out Chevy Nova, running heroin and cocaine along the New England coastline. Yet she carries with her memories of a nurtured childhood in hardscrabble Rhode Island, where all the disappointments of her young parents were eclipsed by her grandmother's love.
Spanning six decades and two continents, from the shores of WWII England to the underside of 1990s America, Junction of Earth and Sky unfolds - in multiple timelines - the enduring bond of grandmother and granddaughter, plagued by the past but determined to find their place in the world against all the odds.
Junction of Earth and Sky by Susan Buttonwieser was published on 1 August 2024 by Manilla Press. As part of this Blog Tour organised by Compulsive Readers, I am delighted to shine a spotlight on the book today.
Praise for Junction of Earth & Sky
This is a book of remarkable insight and empathy. The novel's kaleidoscopic view of one family over six generations drew me right into the characters' lives and wouldn't let me go. I will be thinking about the special bond between Alice and Marnie for a long time -- Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
Written in precise and vivid prose, Junction of Earth and Sky combines the emotional breadth of an epic with the attention to specific, everyday detail of a short story collection. A moving and hopeful novel about intergenerational trauma and the struggle to break the chain -- Imogen Crimp, author of A Very Nice Girl
Through masterfully woven multiple timelines and vividly drawn characters, Junction of Earth and Sky reveals three generations of women overcoming loss, domestic violence, and addiction, ultimately surviving thanks to an abiding love between grandmother and granddaughter -- Virginia Pye
A book to savour. This is a love story between a granddaughter and a grandmother, both of whom we get to know as children, as adults, in their worst times and in their best. These characters will stay with me for a long time -- Caroline Corcoran
Heartbreaking. A painstaking portrayal of how trauma is carried down through generations. A real read-in-one sitting story with characters to care about and history to contemplate. I loved it. -- Ericka Waller
Susan Buttenwieser is the author of Junction of Earth and Sky, her debut novel published by Manilla Press, in 2024 and the short story collection, We Were Lucky with the Rain (Four Way Books, 2020).
Her writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, been anthologized and appeared in numerous literary publications as well as online news magazines including Women’s Media Center, Rewire News Group and LGBTQ Nation.
She has been awarded fiction fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and has taught creative writing in middle schools in the Bronx and Queens, with creative aging programs, in New York City homeless shelters,public libraries, and juvenile detention facilities, as well as in a women's maximum-security.
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