Bloody Mary

A suburban Chicago family comes undone in this “fresh and riveting” novel of domestic disquiet by an award-winning author (Booklist, starred review).   Taking its title from the childhood game of conjuring dread, Pushcart Prize-winner Sharon Solwitz delivers a harrowing, razor-sharp satire of navigating the sexual, emotional, and spiritual calamities of modern life.   Claire Winger lives in an upscale neighborhood with her successful surgeon husband and two socially adept teenage daughters, Nora and twelve-year-old Hadley. Then one day, a small seizure causes Claire to tumble from a painter’s ladder, leading her to disconcerting visions and odd behavior. It begins with Claire inexplicably drawn into a reckless affair. Then one-by-one she alienates her friends. As the seizures mount, the normally over-protective mother soon isolates herself from Hadley who is in the process of destroying her own life, purposefully and efficiently.   Alternating between Claire and Hadley’s perspective, and tracing the effects of fear and desire on a settled, complacent life, “Solwitz dramatizes with incandescent intensity and profound insight the great mysteries of body and soul” (Booklist).