{"product_id":"guesswork-isbn-9781936787463","title":"Guesswork","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"[A] splendid and subtle memoir in essays\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHaving lost eight friends in ten years, Cooley retreats to a tiny medieval village in Italy with her husband. There, in a rural paradise where bumblebees nest in the ancient cemetery and stray cats curl up on her bed, she examines a question both easily evaded and unavoidable: mortality. How do we grieve? How do we go on drinking our morning coffee, loving our life partners, stumbling through a world of such confusing, exquisite beauty?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLinking the essays is Cooley’s escalating understanding of another loss on the way, that of her ailing mother back in the States. Blind since Cooley’s childhood, her mother relies on dry wit to ward off grief and pity. There seems no way for the two of them to discuss her impending death. But somehow, by the end, Cooley finds the words, each one graceful and wrenching.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart memoir, part loving goodbye to an unconventional parent, \u003ci\u003eGuesswork\u003c\/i\u003e transforms a year in a pastoral hill town into a fierce examination of life, love, death, and, ultimately, release.\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eGuesswork\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] splendid and subtle memoir in essays\"\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"As delightful and multi–faceted as the tiny medieval Italian village Cooley spent a year in, \u003ci\u003eGuesswork\u003c\/i\u003e grapples with weighty ideas of mortality and creativity, as well as personal and cultural legacies. Cooley deftly captures the local characters, both human and animal, as well as the cultural and linguistic state of inbetweenness she and her Italian husband exist in. A surprising, beautiful, and moving memoir in essays.\" —Rob Spillman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eBeauty and Sadness\u003c\/i\u003e, the title of Kawabata's novel, could equally fit Martha Cooley's deeply felt, lyrically precise memoir. Such exquisite descriptions and pointed observations pour forth from this writer, gifted with enviable cultivation and sensibility.\" —Phillip Lopate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In her new memoir, \u003ci\u003eGuesswork\u003c\/i\u003e, Martha Cooley explores the issues of loss and grief. With eloquence and tenderness, using as lenses Italy, the deaths of friends, and the nature of love and responsibility toward aging parents, she has written a lovely, thoughtful  book, full of wisdom and caritas.\" —Roxana Robinson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Martha Cooley has a natural instinct for the introspective essay. She creates a subtle pulse of memory and reflection, combining a lyric warmth of engagement with a classicist’s restraint of presentation. The people come alive, and the place—Italy—is vivid in the moment even as it is held fast in the long lens of time.” —Sven Birkerts, Author of \u003ci\u003eChanging the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age\u003c\/i\u003eMartha Cooley is the author of the national bestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Archivist\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThirty–Three Swoons\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eThe Archivist\u003c\/i\u003e was a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book and a New and Noteworthy paperback. Cooley is currently a contributing editor at \u003ci\u003eA Public Space\u003c\/i\u003e. Her co–translations of Italian fiction and poetry include Antonio Tabucchi’s story collection \u003ci\u003eTime Ages in a Hurry\u003c\/i\u003e. A professor of English at Adelphi University, Cooley divides her time between Queens, New York, and Castiglione del Terziere, Italy. Her American cat, Zora, is named after one of the cities in Italo Calvino’s \u003ci\u003eInvisible Cities\u003c\/i\u003e, and their Italian cat, Tristana, is named after the medieval knight.","brand":"Catapult","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301094150373,"sku":"NP9781936787463","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781936787463.jpg?v=1767728563","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/guesswork-isbn-9781936787463","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}