{"product_id":"vanessa-and-her-sister-isbn-9780804176392","title":"Vanessa and Her Sister","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Book • An \u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e“Must List” Pick • “Prepare to be dazzled.”—Paula McLain • “Quite simply astonishing.”—Sarah Blake\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat if Virginia Woolf’s sister had kept a diary? For fans of \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Wife\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLoving Frank\u003c\/i\u003e comes a spellbinding new story of the inseparable bond between Virginia and her sister, the gifted painter Vanessa Bell, and the real-life betrayal that threatened to destroy their family. Hailed by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBook Review \u003c\/i\u003eas “an uncanny success” and based on meticulous research, this stunning novel illuminates a little-known episode in the celebrated sisters’ glittering bohemian youth among the legendary Bloomsbury Group.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eFind your next book club pick, read special features, and more. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon, 1905: The city is alight with change, and the Stephen siblings are at the forefront. Vanessa, Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian are leaving behind their childhood home and taking a house in the leafy heart of avant-garde Bloomsbury. There they bring together a glittering circle of bright, outrageous artistic friends who will grow into legend and come to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. And at the center of this charmed circle are the devoted, gifted sisters: Vanessa, the painter, and Virginia, the writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Each member of the group will go on to earn fame and success, but so far Vanessa Bell has never sold a painting. Virginia Woolf’s book review has just been turned down by \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eTimes\u003c\/i\u003e. Lytton Strachey has not published anything. E. M. Forster has finished his first novel but does not like the title. Leonard Woolf is still a civil servant in Ceylon, and John Maynard Keynes is looking for a job. Together, this sparkling coterie of artists and intellectuals throw away convention and embrace the wild freedom of being young, single bohemians in London.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But the landscape shifts when Vanessa unexpectedly falls in love and her sister feels dangerously abandoned. Eerily possessive, charismatic, manipulative, and brilliant, Virginia has always lived in the shelter of Vanessa’s constant attention and encouragement. Without it, she careens toward self-destruction and madness. As tragedy and betrayal threaten to destroy the family, Vanessa must decide if it is finally time to protect her own happiness above all else.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The work of exciting young newcomer Priya Parmar, \u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister\u003c\/i\u003e exquisitely captures the champagne-heady days of prewar London and the extraordinary lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fiction and history merge seamlessly in this dazzling novel.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Being related to Virginia Woolf can’t have been easy. In this delightful novel, Parmar re-imagines the brilliant, fragile writer and her turn-of-the-century bohemian friends. . . . You’ll be spellbound.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—People\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rarely do you encounter a woman who commands as much admiration as does the painter Vanessa Bell in Priya Parmar’s multilayered, subtly shaded novel.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] gossipy, entertaining historical novel . . . Parmar conjures a devastating fictional portrait.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Captivating . . . echoes of Austen’s \u003ci\u003eSense and Sensibility\u003c\/i\u003e emerge in Parmar’s portrayal.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “An elegant, entertaining novel that brings new life to the Bloomsbury Group’s intrigues.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Dallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Fiction and history merge seamlessly in this dazzling novel.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Being related to Virginia Woolf can’t have been easy. In this delightful novel, [Priya] Parmar re-imagines the brilliant, fragile writer and her turn-of-the-century bohemian friends, the famous Bloomsbury set, through the eyes of her painter sister Vanessa. . . . You’ll be spellbound.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—People\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rarely do you encounter a woman who commands as much admiration as does the painter Vanessa Bell in Priya Parmar’s multilayered, subtly shaded novel. . . . Parmar’s fabricated journal is an uncanny success. Its entries, plausible and graceful, are imbued with the same voice that can be found in letters by or about Vanessa. . . . Parmar gives truth and definition to the character of a woman whose nature was as elusive as her influence was profound. She has caught the phantom.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “In her gossipy, entertaining historical novel about the British bohemians, Priya Parmar conjures a devastating fictional portrait of one of those triangles—the great writer Virginia Woolf; her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell; and Vanessa’s husband, art critic Clive Bell. . . . Parmar’s perceptive and well-informed fill-in-the-blanks approach—and her elegant, accessible style—makes for some tasty, frothy Bloomsbury pie, indeed.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“Captivating . . . echoes of Austen’s \u003ci\u003eSense and Sensibility\u003c\/i\u003e emerge in Parmar’s portrayal.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An elegant, entertaining novel that brings new life to the Bloomsbury Group’s intrigues.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Dallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “You’ll get lost in the worlds of Vanessa Bell and her sister, Virginia Woolf, as they struggle to make it as a painter and an author, respectively, in prewar London—but more so than art, this is a story of sisterhood.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eGlamour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Parmar ambitiously attempts to show us through the eyes of Vanessa Bell, a celebrated painter in her own right, in her inventive, meticulously researched \u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister\u003c\/i\u003e. . . . The Bloomsbury Group were famous for their weekly salons, which were fueled by intellectual discourse, banter and booze; in Parmar’s story, you can almost hear the glasses tinkling. But the author’s greatest triumph is giving voice to the steady, loyal, motherly Vanessa, who lived nobly in her sister’s shadow only to experience a heartbreaking betrayal.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eGood Housekeeping\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Parmar inhabits the gilded ‘bohemian hinterland’ of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa, creating a vibrant fictional homage.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “This novel about sisters of Bloomsbury is a twofer: Read it for the story; literary history is a bonus.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eAARP Bulletin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister\u003c\/i\u003e provides a fascinating take on this literary family, and the affection and exasperation Virginia’s sister might have felt living with a genius, who was prone to fits of madness. If you’re at all interested in Virginia Woolf, or just a fan of a good piece of historical fiction, in the vein of \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Wife,\u003c\/i\u003e this book’s the one for you.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The pretzeled plot unfolds at a steady pace, in crisp period prose, and rarely feels inevitable.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Captivating . . . a subtle exploration of the sisters’ complicated emotional life . . . Through letters and Vanessa’s journal entries, [Parmar] captures the excitement of social experimentation.”\u003cb\u003e—BBC\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Parmar does a stellar job conveying Virginia’s complicated, almost incestuous feelings for Vanessa. . . . The author also deftly brings to life the various artists and writers who formed the nascent Bloomsbury group. . . . Parmar’s narrative is riveting and successfully takes on the task of turning larger-than-life figures into real people. . . . [She] weaves their stories together so effortlessly that nothing seems out of place.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[A] nuanced account . . . A devoted, emotionally intense portrait of the Bloomsbury group focuses in particular on sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. . . . Vanessa, the artist, emerges as ‘an ocean of majestic calm,’ almost infinitely tolerant of her sister, the writer, whose capricious, jealous nature, though tempered by intellectual brilliance and immense charm, tips over at times into madness and suicidal thoughts. . . . Not exactly uncharted territory, but Parmar enters it with passion and precision, delivering a sensitive, superior soap opera of celebrated lives.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “The book’s strength lies in the well-written relationship between Vanessa and Virginia, sure to appeal to fans of Michael Cunningham’s \u003ci\u003eThe Hours\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Rich with atmospheric detail . . . Readers are in for a treat. Vanessa Bell is the sister of Virginia Woolf, and thus you can imagine why this novel is just wonderful.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookreporter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Priya Parmar is on a high-wire act all her own in this radiantly original novel about the Bloomsbury Set. Irrepressible, with charm and brio to spare, \u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister \u003c\/i\u003eboldly invites us to that moment in history when famous minds sparked and collided. Prepare to be dazzled.”\u003cb\u003e—Paula McLain, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Wife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “With sparkling wit and insight, Priya Parmar sets us down into the legendary Bloomsbury household of the Stephen siblings, where sisters Vanessa and Virginia vie for love and primacy amidst a collection of eccentric guests. \u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister \u003c\/i\u003ekidnapped me for a couple of days. I couldn’t put it down.”\u003cb\u003e—Nancy Horan, author of \u003ci\u003eUnder the Wide and Starry Sky \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I loved this brilliant depiction of the true price of genius. Parmar’s novel shines a bright light into the empty spaces between the lines of history.”\u003cb\u003e—Helen Simonson, author of \u003ci\u003eMajor Pettigrew’s Last Stand\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “This is the novel I didn’t know I was waiting for, and it is, quite simply, astonishing: not just because of Priya Parmar’s preternatural skill at evoking the moment when the lid was coming off the Victorians, but because of how she has caught the two sisters at the center of that swirl. It is beautiful, wise, and as deft as a stroke upon the canvas.”\u003cb\u003e—Sarah Blake, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Postmistress\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Priya Parmar is a powerful new voice in historical fiction. This novel explores the anguished relationship between Virginia Woolf and her sister, and provides a new view of the artistic, sensual Bloomsbury world, placing Vanessa Bell at the heart of the story.”\u003cb\u003e—Philippa Gregory, author of \u003ci\u003eThe King’s Curse\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eVanessa and Her Sister\u003c\/i\u003e is an account of my grandmother’s early life, told with faith, elegance, and an almost uncanny insight into the subject. But this is also an absorbing work of fiction—and Priya Parmar has made Vanessa’s story her own.”\u003cb\u003e—Virginia Nicholson, Vanessa Bell’s granddaughter and author of \u003ci\u003eAmong the Bohemians\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eEducated at Mount Holyoke College, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Oxford, \u003cb\u003ePriya Parmar\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of one previous novel, \u003ci\u003eExit the Actress\u003c\/i\u003e. She divides her time between Hawaii and London.Virginia Woolf\u003cbr\u003eAsheham House\u003cbr\u003eRodmell\u003cbr\u003eSussex\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2 December 1912--Asheham\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDearest Nessa,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe arrived in an inauspicious brown crate. Your painting is smaller and rougher than I expected. Mrs. Virginia Woolf in a Deckchair--what a marvelously blunt title. Without it, I am not sure anyone would know it is me given the empty face but Leonard says he recognized the set of the shoulders right away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere shall I put your beautiful canvas? Leonard thinks the upstairs hallway. Would you choose when you come down next week? You know how I like it when you decide these things. You \u003cu\u003eare\u003c\/u\u003e still coming down?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is an unrushed calm about your Mrs. Woolf. Is this how you see me now, dearest? The woman in the painting looks whole and serene and loved. Am I still loveable? Or have I undone that now?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo, Nessa, it must not be. What happened cannot break us. It is impossible. Someday you will love me and forgive me. Someday we will begin again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlways your\u003cbr\u003eVirginia","brand":"Ballantine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304815284453,"sku":"NP9780804176392","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780804176392.jpg?v=1767743378","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/vanessa-and-her-sister-isbn-9780804176392","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}