Signed, Mata Hari

Literature & Fiction

Yannick Murphy

Contemporary

ABACUS +

In the cold October of 1917 Margaretha Zelle, alias Mata Hari, the infamous exotic dancer, sits in a prison cell in Paris awaiting trial on charges of espionage; the penalty, death by firing squad. As she waits, Mata Hari tells stories - much like Scheherazade in The 1001 Nights - to buy back her life from her interrogators. From a bleak childhood on the shores of the North Sea, through a loveless marriage to a Dutch naval officer, Margaretha is transported to the sensual pleasures of the south seas. She spins tales of native lovers and fragrant Javanese jungles; she tells of the ugly disintegration of her family. Then, in flight from her brutal husband, Margaretha reinvents herself: she becomes the temple dancer Mata Hari - dressed in veils, admired by Diaghilev, performing for the crowned heads of Europe. Tender, subtle and intensely erotic, Murphy's retelling of an iconic story is a haunting portrait of love and treachery.

[Read by Karen White] From Yannick Murphy, award-winning author of The Call, comes a fast-paced story of murder, adultery, parenthood, and romance, involving a girls' swim team, their morally flawed parents, and a killer who swims in their midst. - - In a quiet New England community, members of swim team and their dedicated parents are preparing for a home meet. The most that Annie, a swim-mom of two girls, has to worry about is whether or not she fed her daughters enough carbs the night before; why her husband, Thomas, hasn't kissed her in ages; and why she can't get over the loss of her brother, who shot himself a few years ago. - - But Annie's world is about to change. From the bleachers, looking down at the swimmers, a dark-haired man watches a girl. No one notices him. Annie is busy getting to know Paul, who flirts with Annie despite the fact that he's married to her friend Chris, and despite Annie's greying hair and crow's feet. Chris is busy trying to discover whether or not Paul is really having an affair, and the swimmers are trying to shave milliseconds off their race times by squeezing themselves into skin-tight bathing suits and visualizing themselves winning their races. - - When a girl on the team is murdered at a nearby highway rest stop - the same rest stop where Paul made a gruesome discovery years ago - the parents suddenly find themselves adrift. Paul turns to Annie for comfort. Annie finds herself falling in love. Chris becomes obsessed with unmasking the killer. - - With a serial killer now too close for comfort, Annie and her fellow swim-parents must make choices about where their loyalties lie. As a series of startling events unfold, Annie discovers what it means to follow your intuition, even if love, as well as lives, could be lost.

This Is the Water: A Novel

Literary

HarperCollins Audio and Blackstone Audio

Splitting time between a garbage-strewn apartment and an overly affectionate hot dog vendor, the observant thirteen-year-old at the center of Here They Come gives lyrical voice to an unforgettable instant — 1970s New York, stifling, violent, and full of life. Balanced between her enigmatic siblings, borderline parents, and a quiet sense of the surreal, she recounts a year of vivid, mundane moments with dark humor and deadpan resilience. By the author of the New York Times Notable Book Sea of Trees.

Here They Come

McSweeney's

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Books by Yannick Murphy