Description

About the Author

Valerie Martin is the author of three collections of short fiction, most recently The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories, and seven novels, including Italian Fever; The Great Divorce; Mary Reilly, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story told from the viewpoint of a housemaid, which was filmed with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich; and the 2003 Orange Prize–winning Property. She is also the author of a nonfiction work about St. Francis of Assisi: Salvation, Scenes from the Life of St. Francis.

Praise for Trespass…

“A complex and emotionally rich novel. . . . Valerie Martin leaves you with a sense of having read a story that will continue to unfold long after you have put the book down.” —Times Literary Supplement (London)

“This is a novel you read with sharp attention, both to the important questions it asks and to the complicated answers it offers.” —Entertainment Weekly

“American exceptionalism. American self-absorption. Books, essays and newspaper columns have treated the theme, but not much fiction [until] Valerie Martin in [this] dark and wickedly diverting novel about the storm-driven erosion of Fortress America.” —Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

“Ambitious. . . . Trespass's dramatic yet wholly surprising conclusion underscores that the future arrives with every minute-even if we can't predict which corner of the past it will spring from.” —Vogue

“Provocative and exhilarating. . . . a masterly tale of transgression, acceptance, diplomacy, war, class conflict, love, forgiveness, and jealousy.” —The Times (London)

“Trespass provides a searing commentary on the human desire to set boundary lines against threats, perceived and real. It's a testament to Martin's skill as both storyteller and writer that her complex characters defy separation into two camps-those who accept and those who judge. Nothing in Trespass is quite as it seems, and that is precisely the point.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] gripping and powerful novel of tight-lipped manners and horrific atrocities.” —Margaret Atwood

“Unsettling and at times tragic, Trespass casts a cold eye on the American family and reveals the uncertainties that cloud our evolving national identity.” —Time Out New York

“[Martin] is not afraid to take risks. . . . Trespass is a beautifully constructed, richly textured, and elegantly written novel.” —The Independent (London)

“Stunning. . . . initially propelled by a drumbeat of dread, this book morphs into something both thoughtful and magical.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“[Martin's] most intriguing and absorbing novel yet…A brilliant contemporary novel that plays out on the world stage.” —The New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Moving and disturbing. . . . taut, nearly-perfect. . . . Trespass is a profound cautionary tale for our times.” —Buffalo News

“Brilliant and seductive.” —People (four stars)

“Martin is an expert at combining simmering menace with a cool, merciless irony.” —Salon

“Arresting. . . . Trespass is a literary treasure hiding in plain sight.” —Chicago Tribune

“A wickedly diverting novel about the storm-driven erosion of Fortress America.” —Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

“Mesmerizing. . . . a war novel that gives you a glimpse of what war might really mean. . . . Trespass revels in truth.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Astonishing. . . . Martin leaves the reader with an indelible, crushing view of the many ways, psychological and physical, real and imagined, in which people get in each other's spaces, with all-too-frequently appalling circumstances.” —The Wichita Eagle

“Valerie Martin is a marvel. She takes us to such unexpected places, so elegantly, so deeply yet delicately, and with such unexpected insights.” —The Salt Lake Tribune