GAYLE BRANDEIS

Una novela llena de esperanza y pasión por la vida.Ava, desde pequeña, ha matado -siempre sin querer- a los adorados pájaros de su madre. Ahora, recién graduada, recibe la noticia de que una epidemia esta acabando con los pelicanos de Salton Sea y acude como voluntaria a las labores de rescate.La madre de Ava sufrio terribles experiencias como prostituta en una base militar de Corea. Hasta que se caso con un soldado con el que se traslado a los Estados Unidos. Pero cuando dio a luz a un bebe negro, el la abandono.Ninguna de las dos imagina que sera en el desierto donde la incomunicacion que las separa empiece a derrumbarse. Una novela de amor, libertad y lucha sobre dos mujeres que aprenden a desplegar sus alas.

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A struggling single mother and a young figure skater at the top of her game find their lives unexpectedly entwined in this unforgettable novel of warmth, depth, and wisdom from the author of Self Storage.Delta Girls is a novel ignited by secretssecrets that propel the novel to its wild climax. Most satisfying of all are Brandeiss descriptions of the inner landscape of fierce maternal love.Bridget Asher, author of My Husbands SweetheartsIzzy and her daughter, Quinn, have been on the move for all of Quinns nine years. Izzy works the fields as a fruit picker, following the produce north and south through the growing season. When they reach a struggling pear orchard in the Sacramento River Delta, Izzy intends it to be just another way station in their nomadic lives. But the orchard and its kindly owners capture Quinns heart, and Izzy briefly forgets that shes running from a past that still haunts heruntil a strange incident brings national media attention to the Delta. Seemingly a world away, Karen is a rising young star in figure skating with an edgy, daring new partner. Nathan is everything her old teammate wasnt: sexy, dangerous, and extremely headstrong. As Karen nears her eighteenth birthday, the partners find themselves on the world stageand the simmering intensity between them finally erupts.As each woman struggles with a sudden thrust into the spotlight, their narratives become more intertwineduntil Izzys past and Karens future finally collide.

Flan Parker has always had an inquisitive mind, searching for whats hidden below the surface and behind the door. Her curious nature and enthusiastic probing have translated into a thriving resale business in the university housing complex where she lives with her husband and two young children. Flans venture helps pay the bills while her husband works on his dissertation, work that lately seems to involve more loafing on the sofa watching soap operas than reading or writing. The secret of her enterprising success: unique and everyday treasures bought from the auctions of forgotten and abandoned storage units.When Flan secures the winning bid on a box filled only with an address and a note bearing the word yes, she sets out to discover the source of this mysterious message and its meaning. Armed with a well-worn copy of Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grassthat she turns to for guidance and solace, Flan becomes determined to find the yes in her own life. This search inward only strengthens her desire to unearth the hidden stories of those around herin particular, her burqa-clad Afghan neighbor. Flans interest in this intriguing and secretive woman, however, comes at a formidable price for Flan and her family.Set during the year following the September 11 attacks, Self Storage explores the raw insecurities of a changed society. With lush writing, great humor, and a genuine heart, Gayle Brandeis takes a peek into the souls of a woman and a communityand reveals that it is not our differences that drive us apart but our willful concealment of the qualities that connect us.

Award-winning novelist and poet Gayle Brandeiss wrenching memoir of her complicated family history and her mothers suicideGayle Brandeiss mother disappeared just after Gayle gave birth to her youngest child. Several days later, her body was found: she had hanged herself in the utility closet of a Pasadena parking garage. In this searing, formally inventive memoir, Gayle describes the dissonance between being a new mother, a sweet-smelling infant at her chest, and a grieving daughter trying to piece together what happened, who her mother was, and all she had and hadnt understood about her.Around the time of her suicide, Gayles mother had been working on a documentary about the rare illnesses she thought ravaged her family: porphyria and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. In The Art of Misdiagnosis, taking its title from her mothers documentary, Gayle braids together her own narration of the charged weeks surrounding her mothers suicide, transcripts of her mothers documentary, research into delusional and factitious disorders, and Gayles own experience with misdiagnosis and illness (both fabricated and real). Slowly and expertly, The Art of Misdiagnosis peels back the complicated layers of deception and complicity, of physical and mental illness in Gayles family, to show how she and her mother had misdiagnosed one another.Gayles memoir is both a compelling search into the mystery of ones own family and a life-affirming story of the relief discovered through breaking familial and personal silences. Written by a gifted stylist, The Art of Misdiagnosis delves into the tangled mysteries of disease, mental illness, and suicide and comes out the other side with grace.