The Lace Makers of Glenmara

By Heather Barbieri
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780061772467, 304pp.)

Publication Date: July 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover, Paperback

Categories: General, Literary

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the July 2009 Indie Next List

“Exhausted from devastating losses in every aspect of her life, young fashion designer and seamstress Kate Robinson travels to Ireland, making good on a promise to her dying mother to visit their ancestral home, a tiny, close-knit fishing community. There, she joins a group of lace makers, both learning from them and using her talents to reimagine their craft. Full of finely developed characters, whom you will come to know and appreciate.”

-- JK Campbell, Colorado State Univ. Bookstore, Fort Collins, CO

Description

"You can always start again," Kate Robinson's mother once told her. "All it takes is a new thread."Overwhelmed by heartbreak and loss, Kate follows her mother's advice and flees to Ireland, her ancestral homeland, hoping to reinvent herself. In the seaside hamlet of Glenmara, the struggling twentysix-year-old fashion designer quickly develops a bond with members of the local lace-making society—and soon she and the lace makers are creating a line of exquisite lingerie, their skilled hands bringing flowers, Celtic dragons, nymphs, saints, kings, and queens to life with painterly skill. The circle also offers them something more: the strength to face their desires and fears. But not everyone in this charming, fading Gaelic village welcomes Kate, and a series of unexpected events threatens to unravel everything the women have worked so hard for.

About the Author

The author of two previous novels, The Lace Makers of Glenmara and Snow in July, Heather Barbieri has won international prizes for her short fiction. She lives in Seattle with her family.

Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices.com

1. Women's friendships are central to The Lace Makers of Glenmara. Discuss the shifting alliances, confidences, and conflicts among Bernie, Kate, Aileen, Oona, Moira, and Colleen. Who is a good friend? Why?

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