Unravelling (Hyperion, 1997; Harcourt Brace/Harvest, 1999)
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- The New York Time Book Review
- Review of Contemporary Fiction
- Entertainment Weekly
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- New York Times Notable Book of the Year
- The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide
- Finalist, Pen Winship Award
- Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Book
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“Exceptional . . . Intensely-imagined, right-valued, memorable.” The New York Times Book Review
My mother liked to say that life is a long straight road if you live it right, but mine has turned and tumbled. In 1829, when I was born, she picked my name from an article in The Ladies Pearl. Aimee. At French Improvement Circle, I learned how in French it meant loved. My mother did not know. . . . First I was loved, like my name. Then I was unloved. Now I have Amos and Plumey who visit me, the village cripple and the village orphan, as they are known in town. I have my rabbits who give me fun to spin into yarn. I have my house, built to last, chickens who leave me eggs, clear vision and a strong back, a mother I never see . . .
This rich, evocative novel, set in 19th-century New England, follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a young, headstrong woman, Aimee Slater. Aimee has always dreamed of a life beyond the small farm her family owns. When she sets out to seek her fortune at the Lowell Textile Mills, she opens a rift between herself and her mother that feels, in her own words, like “an impossible distance.” How Aimee bridges that vast gulf is beautifully told in this acclaimed and moving story of love and loss.
