When James Jack finds his ninety-four-year-old 'Tante' Marguerite Deo lying dead outside his cabin, he is forced to confront the mystery of her death. An unexpected tale unfolds, moving in backward glances from the present to a windswept New England Island at the turn of the century, and to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II. At the heart of the story are a forbidden love, a violent crime kept secret for years, and, above all, Marguerite's relationship with a little boy, James Jack, whom she adopted after his parents' death in a terrible accident. Moving and tender, this is a haunting and lyrical novel of lives, secrets and memories. A powerful work of suspense and emotional intensity.

Burning Marguerite

Inness-Brown, Elizabeth

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd.

A haunting weave of lives, secrets, and memo-ries—a powerful work of psychological suspense and emotional intensity. Waking to the chill of a snow-cloaked morning, carpenter James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo lying dead in the woods outside his cabin. As he confronts the mystery of her death—why would Marguerite, his “Tante” since his infancy, walk out into the cold winter night?—an unexpected tale unfolds, moving from the present back to James Jack’s childhood, to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II, and finally to a windswept New England island at the turn of the century. At the heart of the story are a forbidden love, a violent crime kept secret for years, and above all, Marguerite’s relationship with a little boy named James Jack, a bond that deepens after a terrible accident changes both their lives forever. Burning Marguerite is a debut novel of rare depth and artistry.

Literature & Fiction

United States

KNOPF

One winter morning James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo—the woman he has always known as “Tante”—lying dead in the woods outside his cabin, clad only in a flowered nightgown. With this arresting scene, Elizabeth Inness-Brown ushers readers into her mysterious and lyrical narrative, the story of two closely braided lives that forces a reconsideration of our notions of maternity, loyalty, love, and perhaps death itself. As James Jack sets out to fulfill Marguerite’s unusual last wishes, the narrative unveils the secrets of their pasts. It arcs from Depression-era New Orleans to a barren New England island at the turn of the century, from an illicit passion and an unforgivable crime to the relationship between a small boy and a tough, reclusive woman who turns out to possess an unsuspected capacity for love.

Vintage

BURNING MARGUERITE

Contemporary

Phoenix_Press

In these fourteen stories of growing up, hanging on, and getting old, Elizabeth Inness-Brown maps a territory of loneliness and love. Here is the sanctuary of the solitary mind, the land to which the unwanted exile themselves, the place to which we all retreat when life becomes too hot to touch. With wit, affection, and finesse, this collection shows us the dark side of our moon, the unfamiliar side that we nonetheless recognize as soon as we see it. Under the sensual and sometimes fanciful surface of these fourteen stories lurks a dark reality: what any of us will do, desperate for love. But within the reality gleams a kind of measured transcendence, the kind of reclaimed innocence and balance that come only from accepting things as they truly are.

Here: Stories

Louisiana State Univ Pr

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Books by Inness-Brown, Elizabeth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Inness-Brown, Elizabeth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Burning Marguerite

Burning Marguerite

Burning Marguerite

BURNING MARGUERITE

Here: Stories