Astrid Arz Book order (chronological)

Following the curves of history in the first half of the twentieth century, Fall on Your Knees takes us from haunted Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, through the battlefields of World War I, to the emerging jazz scene in New York City, and into the lives of four unforgettable sisters. The mythically charged family - James, a father of intelligence and immense ambition ; Materia, his Lebanese child-bride ; and their daughters: Kathleen, the eldest, a beautiful talent preparing for a career as an opera diva ; Frances, incorrigible liar and hell-bent bad girl ; Mercedes, obsessive Catholic and protector of the flock ; and Lily, the adored invalid who takes us on a quest for truth and redemption - is supported by a richly textured cast of characters. Fall on Your Knees is a story of inescapable family bonds, of terrible secrets, of miracles, racial strife, attempted murder, birth and death, and forbidden love

Kjetsaa tells the dramatic story of how Dostoyevsky, the son of an irascible minor aristocrat, rose rapidly to fame as a writer and just as rapidly lost everything--almost including his life--for his liberal political views. Kjetsaa vividly recreates Dostoyevsky's last-minute rescue from a firing squad and explores how his long imprisonment in Siberia profoundly shaped his vision as a novelist.