{"product_id":"beginning-middle-end","title":"Beginning Middle End","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the beloved, award-winning author of the culture-changing hits \u003ci\u003eLost Children Archive\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTell Me How it Ends \u003c\/i\u003ecomes her most powerful and page-turning novel the tale of a mother and daughter traveling together after the collapse of a marriage and the dissolution of their traditional family structure.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eValeria Luiselli's novel opens the morning a mother and her teenage daughter arrive in Sicily, during a summer of rapidly-changing winds, volcanic rumbles, and sudden tempests. They’ve landed near the ancient ruins where the narrator’s grandmother worked long ago on an archaeological dig. \u003ci\u003eHow do you begin again,\u003c\/i\u003e the mother wonders, pondering her family line, \u003ci\u003eand what if the new beginning you're imagining is actually the end?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile the mother tries to figure out how to reconstruct their lives together—cooking meals side by side, reading out loud to each other, playing chess, bickering and making-up—her deeply intelligent, inquisitive daughter begins to take the reins of the story. She becomes increasingly curious about her great-grandmother’s past as a digger in archaeological sites and ancient tombs, and urges her mother to leave their enclosed day-to-day in search for answers about their family’s past and future. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBeginning Middle End\u003c\/i\u003e evolves into a road novel of exquisite tenderness. In their drive through Sicily, mother and daughter cross paths with the island's migrants, storekeepers, and elders, but also its volcanoes, its winds and its waters. As their trip progresses, it becomes a journey to origins—not just to the familial past across continents, languages, and generations, but also further back to a mythical and geological past. With her own mother showing signs of dementia, the narrator confronts the primary questions of Where is home? Where do we dwell and seek safety? How are a family’s memories made and what happens when they disappear?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWarm, funny, and poetic, this novel is an ode to imagination and possibility in dark times.","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45347230875682,"sku":"9798217208319","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/3841\/0530\/files\/9798217208319.jpg?v=1778175881","url":"https:\/\/anovelideabookshop.org\/products\/beginning-middle-end","provider":"A Novel Idea Bookshop ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}