Store Events - May 9, 7:00 p.m.

Jabberwocky Bookshop is pleased to welcome best-selling Scottish-born author Margot Livesey for a reading from her latest novel, THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET.

An absorbing and provocative detective story of the heart, Livesey’s latest pays subtle homage to literary figures and works and offers multiple perspectives on the life of Dara MacLeod, a young London therapist. Her best friend, Abigail, says, "Everyone has a book or a writer who's the key to their life." Across four interweaving narratives, Livesey shows how that is true. The first section introduces readers to Sean Wyman, a Keats scholar who is Abigail’s boyfriend. The second section is set in Dara’s childhood and is narrated by her estranged father, who is fascinated by Lewis Carroll and shares his creepy fondness for young girls. The third section mirrors the plot of Jane Eyre and recounts Dara's meeting her boyfriend, Edward. The final section is reminiscent of Great Expectations and is told mainly from Abigail's college-era point of view.

Publisher’s Weekly praises THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET. “The pieces cross-reference and fit together seamlessly, with Dara's fate being revealed by the end of part one and explained in the denouement. Livesey's use of the classics enriches the narrative, giving Dara a larger-than-life resonance.” And Ann Patchett, author of RUN and BEL CANTO, raves, “I loved this book. The House on Fortune Street pulled me in and kept me rapt from start to finish. Margot Livesey is writing at her very best.”

Margot Livesey is the acclaimed author of the novels Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, and Banishing Verona. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Born in Scotland, she currently lives in the Boston area and is a writer in residence at Emerson College.

The House on Fortune Street
by Livesey, Margot
Format:  Hardcover (Cloth)
Price:  $24.95
Published: Harper, 2008
Inventory Status: Usually Ships in 1-5 days

  See all editions of this title.

It seems like mutual good luck for Abigail Taylor and Dara MacLeod when they meet at St. Andrews University and, despite their differences, become fast friends. Years later they remain an unlikely pair. Abigail, an actress who confidently uses her charms both on- and offstage, believes herself immune to love. Dara, a counselor, is convinced that everyone is inescapably marked by childhood; she throws herself into romantic relationships with frightening intensity. Yet now each seems to have found "true love"--another stroke of luck?--Abigail with her academic boyfriend, Sean, and Dara with a tall, dark violinist named Edward, who literally falls at her feet. But soon after Dara moves into Abigail's downstairs apartment, trouble threatens both relationships, and their friendship.

For Abigail it comes in the form of an anonymous letter to Sean claiming that she's been unfaithful; for Dara, a reconciliation with her distant father, Cameron, who left the family when Dara was ten, reawakens complicated feelings. Through four ingeniously interlocking narratives--Sean's, Cameron's, Dara's, and Abigail's--we gradually understand how these characters' lives are shaped by both chance and determination. Whatever the source, there is no mistaking the tragedy that strikes the house on Fortune Street.

"Everyone," claims Abigail, "has a book or a writer who's the key to their life." As this statement reverberates through each of the narratives, Margot Livesey skillfully reveals how luck--good and bad--plays a vital role in our lives, and how the search for truth can prove a dangerous undertaking. Written with her characteristic elegance and wit, "The House on Fortune Street" offers a surprisingly provocative detective story of the heart.