Out of Peel Tree - Softcover

"Laura Long writes withsuch tenderness for her characters, for place, for the natural world. The images shimmer and the links delight."Out of Peel Tree"is tatted into the finest lacedelicate, seamless, and strong. Is it any wonder this is a poet s novel?" Sara Pritchard, author of"Help Wanted: Female"and"Crackpots" Long is sensitive to the details of life and people. Her themes, characterizations, and story are built on a foundation of symbolism and imagery. She transforms the everydaybutter clogging bread, the shaking of cornflakes, an African Violet plant, wrinklesinto meaning. . . .This kind of layered writing creates the feeling that every word is important. Meaning reveals itself bit by bit, and the book invites a slower reading. Alicia Sondhi, "ForeWord"Reviews" "In an elaborate mosaic that is both moving and uplifting, "Out of Peel Tree"tells the story of three generations of West Virginia women and their survival against the odds.This vivid, compact work is akin to an unforgiving family portrait that reveals everythingwarts and all." Clifford Garstang, author of"What the Zhang Boys Know"and2013 recipient of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction." Laura Long has eyes like no other. The world she sees has more dimensions than the mundane 3-D world the rest of us inhabit. In her world even dry leaves and red tomatoes and postcards are sentient. Marie Manilla, author of"The Patron Saint of Ugly"and"Still Life with Plums"" ""Out of Peel Tree"is the perfect title for this wonderfully unpredictable-collection of restless souls who ve been shaken loose from their roots. Laura Long moves fluently through many moods, from poignant and yielding to harsh and bitter and back again. She honors the fragile connections between the members of this farflung family and the people they love (and often leave), and beautifully calibrates the dramas of childhood, old age and the fraught years in between." Rosellen Brown, author of"Before and After"and"Half a Heart, "has published novels, stories, poetry. Her book"Cora Fry s Pillow Book"is a sequence of poems about a woman s life in small-town New Hampshire." ""Out of Peel Tree"is a book of glorious surprises. The unexpected in image and in character, in turns of phrase and turns of plot, awakens its readers not just to fresh perspectives, but even to fresh forms of consciousness. Vivid, sonorous, and wise." Ann Pancakeis the author of"Given Ground," a collection of short storiesand a novel, "Strange As This Weather Has Been." " "Like one of her many remarkable characters, Laura Long has the imaginative capacity to "be, in fleeting moments, anything she sees" and she enables the reader to realize, right along with her, the textures of magical realities in a slow, lovely dream: glass-bottomed boats, milagro candles, the feel of the color green--and most of all, the sorrows and joys of an extended Appalachian family in its stunning American diaspora."Out of Peel Tree"offers an indelible cultural portrait and a unique literary experience. Laura Long is an astonishing writer." Tracy Daughertyis the author of four novels, five short story collections, and biographies of Donald Barthelme and Joseph Heller. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. " "Aside from the gorgeous writing and deeply compelling characters, what I especially value about Laura Long s"Out of Peel Tree"is its honoring both the region and the literature out of which it springs, at the same time it brilliantly offers a new vision and shines a light on the path ahead. This is a book to be enjoyed immediately and cherished for years to come." David Huddle, author of"Only the Little Bone"and"The Story of a Million Years"" This is prose as joyful and complex as the joy it describes. Expect to levitate along with the characters. Leigh Newman, "Oprah s Book Club 2.0" ""Out of Peel Tree"is an amazing book, alive with the enchantments of language and perception. Through one family s experience of love, luck, and the meaning of home, Laura Long s vibrant prose turns barebones, slim-hope existence into something capacious, endowing her characters and their adventures with richness and depth." Daphne Kalotay, award-winning author of"Sight Reading"and"Russian Winter"" "Laura Long writes with such tenderness for her characters, for place, for the natural world. The images shimmer and the links delight. "Out of Peel Tree" is tatted into the finest lace--delicate, seamless, and strong. Is it any wonder this is a poet's novel?" Sara Pritchard, author of "Help Wanted: Female" and "Crackpots" "Long is sensitive to the details of life and people. Her themes, characterizations, and story are built on a foundation of symbolism and imagery. She transforms the everyday--butter clogging bread, the shaking of cornflakes, an African Violet plant, wrinkles--into meaning. . . .This kind of layered writing creates the feeling that every word is important. Meaning reveals itself bit by bit, and the book invites a slower reading." Alicia Sondhi, "ForeWord" Reviews ""Out of Peel Tree" is a book of glorious surprises. The unexpected in image and in character, in turns of phrase and turns of plot, awakens its readers not just to fresh perspectives, but even to fresh forms of consciousness. Vivid, sonorous, and wise." Ann Pancake is the author of "Given Ground," a collection of short stories and a novel, "Strange As This Weather Has Been." "This is prose as joyful and complex as the joy it describes. Expect to levitate along with the characters." Leigh Newman, "Oprah's Book Club 2.0" ""Out of Peel Tree "is an amazing book, alive with the enchantments of language and perception. Through one family's experience of love, luck, and the meaning of home, Laura Long's vibrant prose turns barebones, slim-hope existence into something capacious, endowing her characters and their adventures with richness and depth." Daphne Kalotay, award-winning author of "Sight Reading" and "Russian Winter" ""Out of Peel Tree "is an amazing book, alive with the enchantments of language and perception. Through one family's experience of love, luck, and the meaning of home, Laura Long's vibrant prose turns barebones, slim-hope existence into something capacious, endowing her characters and their adventures with richness and depth." Daphne Kalotay, award-winning author of "Sight Reading" and "Russian Winter" "Laura Long has eyes like no other. The world she sees has more dimensions than the mundane 3-D world the rest of us inhabit. In her world even dry leaves and red tomatoes and postcards are sentient." Marie Manilla, author of "The Patron Saint of Ugly" and "Still Life with Plums" ""Out of Peel Tree" is the perfect title for this wonderfully unpredictable-collection of restless souls who've been shaken loose from their roots. Laura Long moves fluently through many moods, from poignant and yielding to harsh and bitter and back again. She honors the fragile connections between the members of this farflung family and the people they love (and often leave), and beautifully calibrates the dramas of childhood, old age and the fraught years in between." Rosellen Brown, author of "Before and After" and "Half a Heart, "has published novels, stories, poetry. Her book "Cora Fry's Pillow Book" is a sequence of poems about a woman's life in small-town New Hampshire. "One word comes repeatedly to mind as I read and then recall the stories revealed in "Out of Peel Tree" tenderness. Laura Long writes with such tenderness for her characters, for place, for the natural world. The images shimmer and the links delight. "Out of Peel Tree" is tatted into the finest lace--delicate, seamless, and strong. Is it any wonder this is a poet's novel?" Sara Pritchard, author of "Help Wanted: Female" and "Crackpots"

Moving through time and space, Out of Peel Tree unfolds the patterns of an Appalachian sensibility that reverberate everywhere: a fatalism balanced by humor and flinty, hard-won hope, an appreciation for the surprises of the everyday, and a search for love and home amid strange and familiar places and people. This innovative debut novel reveals the lives of a far-flung contemporary Appalachian family through a web of delicate turning points. A child discovers a grandmother she never knew has died. A runaway teen schemes to start a new life in Texas. A man on parole falls hopelessly in love with a shoplifter. A woman receives a letter about her husband's other wife. An old woman confronts a burglar with the help of her ghost-husband. United by a connection to their matriarch, these characters search at home and beyond to make a fresh sense of their changing lives. As a novel in stories, Out of Peel Tree brings a new lyricism to the page and a new voice to American and Appalachian literature - a voice deeply inflected by the beauty of the natural world and by working-class grit.