Real Life & Liars
By Kristina Riggle
(William Morrow Paperbacks, Paperback, 9780061706288, 352pp.)
Publication Date: June 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Paperback
Categories: General
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Sometimes you find happiness where, and when, you least expect it.
For Mirabelle Zielinski's children, happiness always seems to be just out of reach. Her polished oldest daughter, Katya, clings to a stale marriage with a workaholic husband and three spoiled children. Her son, Ivan, so creative, is a down-in-the-dumps songwriter with the worst taste in women. And the "baby," impulsive Irina, who lives life on a whim, is now reluctantly pregnant and hitched to a man who is twice her age. On the weekend of their parents' anniversary party, lies will be revealed, hearts will be broken...but love will also be found. And the biggest shock may come from Mirabelle herself, because she has a secret that will change everything.
Kristina Riggle lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her husband, two kids, and dog. A freelance journalist, short story writer, and coeditor for fiction at the e-zine Literary Mama, she is the author of two previous novels, Real Life & Liars and The Life You've Imagined.
1. Does Mira's reluctance to have surgery for her breast cancer seem understandable? What other reasons might she have for this reluctance beyond what she shares directly with the reader in the opening chapter?
Riggle crafts a moving and accomplished first novel about a family coming to terms with change.
-Booklist
“Real Life and Liars depicts a family gathering with forensic precision: we see the characters raw in front of us. But Kristina Riggle’s moving and well-executed novel also embraces human fraility and serves up family complexities like a celebration buffet.”
-Eliza Graham, author of Restitution and Playing with the Moon
“A seemingly celebratory gathering brings joy, frustration, love and disappointment to a midwestern family in this wonderful debut novel. These are characters we know and care about from our own lives.”
-Denise Taylor, manager, Schuler Books and Music
“Written with grace, passion, and insight, REAL LIFE AND LIARS is a deeply felt novel that draws a vivid portrait of a family in transition, and examines the very real fear of leaving behind all you hold dear.”
-Maggie Dana, author of BEACHCOMBING
In her wondrously affecting debut novel REAL LIFE AND LIARS, Kristina Riggle accomplished something authors almost never do anymore: she made me care about her characters - and what a wide-ranging cast of characters they are! She made me want good things for them. A must-read for summer 2009.
-Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
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