Kathryn Harrison Books

Exploring the complexities of familial relationships, the narrative delves into the dynamics of love, conflict, and reconciliation within a family. Characters grapple with their pasts while navigating the challenges of their present, revealing secrets that test their bonds. Themes of identity, belonging, and the impact of shared history are central, offering a poignant reflection on what it means to be part of a family. The story unfolds with emotional depth, inviting readers to contemplate their own connections and the frames that define them.

Ann Rogers appears to be a happily married, successful young woman. A talented photographer, she creates happy memories for others, videotaping weddings, splicing together scenes of smiling faces, editing out awkward moments. But she cannot edit her own memories so easily – images of a childhood spent as her father’s model and muse, the subject of his celebrated series of controversial photographs. To cope, Ann slips into a secret life of shame and vice. But when the Museum of Modern Art announces a retrospective of her father’s shocking portraits, Ann finds herself teetering on the edge of self-destruction, desperately trying to escape the psychological maelstrom that threatens to consume her.

In the tradition of The Hare with Amber Eyes and Running in the Family, a memoir of the author's upbringing by her grandparents in a fading mansion above Sunset Boulevard -- a childhood at once privileged and unusual, filled with the mementos and echoes of their impossibly exotic and peripatetic lives.Kathryn Harrison always understood that her family was beyond eccentric -- they'd breached the bounds of the unconventional. She was largely raised by her grandparents in an outsized Tudor confection of a house on the periphery of Bel Air, which she thought of as "Sunset," her kingdom of the imagination, inhabited by the past and its numberless artifacts. True wandering Jews, her grandparents had arrived in Los Angeles in the forties after dramatic, globetrotting lives. Harry Jacobs had been a fur trapper in Alaska, a soldier in the trenches of the Great War, a traveling salesman in a Model T. Margaret Sassoon had lived a privileged life as a member of a Jewish merchant family in Shanghai, turning down offers of marriage from Russian princes exiled by the Revolution. Kathryn Harrison grew up in an almost mythical realm of their letters and artifacts and stories -- until declining finances forced to sell the house on Sunset in 1971, and night fell fast. On Sunset seeks to recover that childhood, that place, those lives -- and does so with piercing poignancy.

Francisca de Luarac, the daughter of a poor Spanish silk grower, is a dreamer of fabulous dreams. Marie Louise de Bourbon, the niece of Louis XIV, dances in slippers of fine Spanish silk in the French Court of the Sun King and imagines her own enchanted future. Born on the same day--in an age when superstition, repression, and the Inquisition reign--the lives of these two young women unfold in tandem, barely touching. Each hoards the memory of her adored lost mother like an amulet. Francica's obsession with her lover, a Catholick priest, will shaper her fate. Marie Loouise is yoked by political expediency to the mad, imptoent Carlos II of Spain. But even as their twin destinies spiral inexorably toward disaster, both Queen and commoner cultivate a dangerous, secret life dedicated to resistance, transcendence, and love. Written in gorgeous prose that has the sheen of silk, Kathryn Harrison's POISON vividlyreminds us of the persistence of desire, the passion that exists between mothers and daughters, and the sorcery of dreams.

Will has a good sex life - with the woman he married. So why then is he increasingly plagued by violent erotic fantasies that, were they to break out of his imagination and into the real world, would have the power to destroy not only his family but his career? He's about to lose his grip when he attends a college reunion and there discovers evidence of a past sexual betrayal, one serious enough that it threatens to overpower the present, even as it offers a key to Will's dangerous obsessions. This novel explores the corrosive effect of evil - and how painful psychological truths long buried within a family can corrupt the present but, through courage and understanding, lead to healing and renewal.

One of today's best young American writers transforms into a work of art the darkest passage imaginable in a young woman's life: an obsessive love affair between father and daughter.

In poised and elegant prose, Kathryn Harrison weaves a stunning story of women, travel, and flight; of love, revenge, and fear; of the search for home and the need to escape it. Set in alluring Shanghai at the turn of the century, the narrative intertwines the destinies of a Chinese woman determined to forget her past and a Western girl focused on the promises of the future. May, beautiful and charismatic, escapes an arranged marriage in rural China for life in a Shanghai brothel, where she meets Arthur, an Australian involved with the Foot Emancipation Society. His mission to rehabilitate May quickly turns into an irresistible attraction to her bound feet. Unable to reform her, Arthur marries May and brings her home to live with his family, including his two daughters, Alice and Cecily. May sees in Alice the possibility of redemption, a surrogate for a lost child, while Alice seeks the love her own mother withholds. However, when Alice is caught preparing her aunt's opium pipe, she is sent to a London boarding school, far from May's influence. The story unfolds amid beauty and cruelty, in a lawless place where traditions clash, and tragedy looms over a world built on unsettled waters. By turns shocking, exquisite, and hilarious, this work is a spellbinding literary triumph.

A scientist in Alaska becomes fascinated by an Aleut woman's muteness, and her disappearance ignites his desperation. This novel intertwines myth and a gripping tale of erotic compulsion, set against the haunting backdrop of the Great North.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK “Part love story, part history, this novel is a tour de force [told] in language that soars and sears.” — More In 1917 St. Petersburg, after Rasputin's body is discovered in the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, moves to the imperial palace to live with Tsar Nikolay and his family. Tsarina Alexandra, hoping Masha has inherited her father's healing abilities, asks her to care for her son, Alyosha, who suffers from hemophilia. Shortly after Masha's arrival, the tsar abdicates, and the royal family is placed under house arrest by the Bolsheviks. Amidst the turmoil of civil war, Masha and Alyosha find comfort in one another. To help distract the prince from his pain, Masha shares stories—some embellished, others imagined—about the courtship of Nikolay and Alexandra, Rasputin's life, and their homeland, which is on the verge of monumental change. In their shared fantasies, weakness transforms into strength, and the impossible future feels tantalizingly close. Praise for the novel highlights its sumptuous prose and fresh perspective on the last days of the Romanovs, with critics noting its enduring impact and mesmerizing storytelling. Harrison's work is described as intricately crafted, blending historical facts with rich imagination, creating a literary gem. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

From the bestselling author of THE BINDING CHAIR, this acclaimed follow-up to her memoir THE KISS delves into the bonds of motherhood across four generations. Kathryn Harrison recalls her childhood when her young mother entrusted her to her British grandmother, a formidable figure from Shanghai. To Kathryn, her grandmother was a master storyteller, revealing tales of a magical, bygone era. After rejecting numerous suitors, she married at 43, becoming the mother of Harrison, who also resisted societal norms. Her mother appeared sporadically, urging unwanted glamour on her shy daughter. Growing up as an observer, Harrison sought to understand these women while carving her own path. In this witty and poignant memoir, she reflects on the ties that bind mothers and children, as well as the forces that can create distance. Harrison explores the legacy of storytelling from her grandmother and examines her family history for inspiration in her writing. As she watches her own children grow, she recalls moments of rebellion, the struggle for perfection leading to an eating disorder, and the tumultuous fights that marked her journey to independence. This evocative book invites readers to explore their own experiences of motherhood, loss, and renewal, capturing the unforgettable moments that shape domestic life.

Persoonlijk verslag van een voettocht naar Santiago.

In Shanghai 1878 wird der kleinen May brutal die Füße gebrochen, um ihren Heiratswert zu steigern. Doch sie kämpft um ihre Eigenständigkeit und muss schließlich ihren Körper verkaufen, was sie auf eine Reise vom Shanghai des 19. Jahrhunderts über London bis zur Riviera der 1920er Jahre führt.

Het leven van een Spaanse vrouw kruist dat van een Franse prinses, die is getrouwd met de onaantrekkelijke koning Carlos II van Spanje, ten tijde van de Spaanse inquisitie in de zeventiende eeuw in Madrid.

Nesmrtelný příběh o síle lidské odvahy. Hluboce inspirativní a plně zdokumentovaný příběh Jany z Arku, kterou roku 1428 „hlasy“ přiměly k tomu, aby sjednotila francouzský národ a přemluvila zdráhavého krále k boji proti anglickým okupantům, fascinoval takovou plejádu uměleckých osobností, jako byl William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, Bertold Brecht nebo Robert Bresson. Byla Jana z Arku světice plná božského osvícení? Schizofrenička? Démonem posedlá heretička, jak se snažili dokázat její žalobci a věznitelé? Každá éra musí převyprávět a přetvořit neobyčejný příběh Panny orleánské po svém a vynikající novelistka a memoáristka Kathryn Harrisonová nám ve své knize Jana z Arku: Proměněný život představuje Janu pro naši dobu – příklad neotřesitelné víry, neobyčejné odvahy a sebedůvěry během brutálně zmanipulovaného inkvizičního procesu a tváří v tvář smrti upálením. Harrisonová obratně proplétá fakta, mýty, folklor, umělecké reflexe a staletí učeneckých a kritických interpretací do poutavého příběhu, ve kterém Janě z Arku navrací její právoplatné místo jedné z největších hrdinek celé lidské historie a akcentuje při tom její ženskou roli.