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Jane Hamilton

Born: 1957 in Oak Park, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Hamilton was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois.

Biography: Hamilton spent has spent most of her life in the Midwest. After Hamilton graduated from college in Minnesota, she stopped off on her way to New York for a job in publishing to visit a friend who was working on a farm for the summer. They needed help for picking season so she stayed a month and ended up falling in love her friend's cousin. They married and she now lives on an apple orchard in Rochester, Wisconsin.


Awards:
  • '''''The Book of Ruth'''''
  • -- PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel
  • -- Oprah Book Club Selection
  • -- Basis for a 2004 television film of the same title '''''A Map of the World'''''
  • -- Notable Book of the Year, New York Times
  • -- Top ten books of

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Website: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/janehamilton/
Jane Hamilton on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=jane+hamilton


Selected Titles

A map of the world
ISBN: 9780307764065 OCLC: 702665126

Anchor Books, New York : 1995.

PenHemingway Award-winning novelist Jane Hamilton follows up her first success, The Book Of Ruth, with this spectacularly haunting drama about a rural American family and a disastrous event that forever changes their lives. Praised by reviewers for its intimate portrayal of the minds of its characters, a novel by the author of The Book of Ruth chronicles one family's decay through guilt and betrayal. Reprint. K. PW.

A map of the world /
ISBN: 0385720106 OCLC: 29521064

Doubleday, New York : 1994.

A woman is falsely accused of molesting a child and goes to jail. The drama begins when Alice Goodwin, a school nurse in a small town in Wisconsin, has a moment of inattention while caring for children and one of them drowns, an occasion for the community to settle scores with an outsider. By the author of The Book of Ruth.

  Disobedience
ISBN: 0553712349 OCLC: 45247826

BDD Audio, New York : ℗2000.

When Henry, a high school senior stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, he realizes that everything is not quite as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair. Henry's observations, set down ten years after that fateful year, are much more than the old story of adultery his mother deemed her affair to be.--

Disobedience :
ISBN: 0552998907 OCLC: 50843459

Black Swan, London : 2001.

  Laura Rider's masterpiece :
ISBN: 9780061805660 OCLC: 884332583

The bestselling author of A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth serves up an entirely different kind of novel: Le Divorce meets The Love Letter. Married for 12 years, Laura and Charlie Rider have come to share almost everything: their nursery business, their love for their animals, and, most especially, their zeal for storytelling. And though they no longer share a bed, they are happy enough continuing along in their pleasant, platonic routine ...

Laura Rider's masterpiece :
ISBN: 0446538957 OCLC: 212909062

Grand Central Pub., New York : 2009.

After twelve years of marriage, Laura Rider decides to stop sleeping with her husband Charlie and write a book, a decision that prompts her to push Charlie into a romance with local radio show host Jenna with comical results.

The book of Ruth
ISBN: 9780671576479 OCLC: 36297604

Simon and Schuster, New York, NY : ℗1997.

The loser in a small town family tries to hold her own as she grows up in the shadow of her brilliant brother, half-crazy mother, and slightly deranged husband.

  The book of Ruth /
ISBN: 061302527X OCLC: 20219994

Ruth, a young woman living in a rural Illinois town, looks back on the people who have shaped her life, including her runaway father, shrewish mother, and crazy husband.

The short history of a prince :
ISBN: 9780307764072 OCLC: 681558940

Anchor Books, New York : [2010]

Introduced as a child to the genius of Balanchine and the lyricism of Tchaikovsky, a boy has aspired to dancing the role of the prince in The Nutcracker. Walter McCloud is a boy with dreams unlike most. Introduced as a child to the genius of Balanchine and the lyricism of Tchaikovsky, Walter has always aspired to be a dancer. As he grows older, it becomes clear that despite his desire, he lacks the talent, and he faces the painful knowledge that his more gifted friends have already surpassed him. Soon, however, that pain is overshadowed when his older brother, Daniel, finds a strange lump on his neck and Walter realizes that a happy family can change overnight. The year that follows transforms the McClouds, as they try to hold together in the face of the fearful consequences of Daniel's illness, and Walter makes discoveries about himself and his friendships that will change him forever. Decades later, after Walter has left home and returned, he must come to terms with the memories of that year, and grapple once and for all with the challenge of carving out a place for himself in this all-too-familiar world. A moving story of the torments of sexuality and the redemptive power of family and friendship, The Short History of a Prince confirms Jane Hamilton's place as a preeminent novelist of our time.

The short history of a prince :
ISBN: 0385479484 OCLC: 37606181

Random House, New York : ©1998.

A roman a trois featuring a homosexual boy and a heterosexual girl, both in love with a bisexual boy. The main protagonist is the homosexual who aspires to be a ballet dancer, thanks to the influence of a lesbian aunt. The setting is 1970s Wisconsin. By the author of A Map of the World.

When Madeline was young :
ISBN: 9780385519984 OCLC: 288910570

Doubleday, New York : ©2006.

When Aaron Maciver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a six-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own. Narrated by Aaron's son, Mac, When Madeline Was Young chronicles the Maciver family through the decades, from Mac's childhood growing up with Madeline and his cousin Buddy in Wisconsin through the Vietnam War, through Mac's years as a husband with children of his own, and through Buddy's involvement with the subsequent Gulf Wars. Jane Hamilton, with her usual humor and keen observations of human relationships, deftly explores the Maciver's unusual situation and examines notions of childhood (through Mac and Buddy's actual youth as well as Madeline's infantilization) and a rivalry between Buddy's and Mac's families that spans decades and various wars. She captures the pleasures and frustrations of marriage and family, and she exposes the role that past relationships, rivalries, and regrets inevitably play in the lives of adults. An honest and exquisite portrait of how a family tragedy forever shapes and alters the boundaries of love.

When Madeline was young :
ISBN: 0385516711 OCLC: 64453479

Doubleday, New York : ©2006.

When Aaron Maciver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a six-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own.

 

 

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