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Astonish Me|Maggie Shipstead
Astonish Me
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Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of Great Circle comes "a novel you must read" (The Washington Post) about a mother who is trying to forget her past as a young ballerina in Paris who fell into a passionate romance with a Soviet dance superstar.

For years Joan has been trying to find peace and satisfaction in her role as wife and mother. Few in her drowsy California suburb know her thrilling history: as a young American ballerina in Paris, she had a doomed affair with Soviet dance superstar Arslan Rusakov.

After playing a leading role in his celebrated defection, Joan bowed out of the spotlight for good, heartbroken by Arslan and humbled by her own modest career. But when her son turns out to be a ballet prodigy, Joan is pulled back into a world she thought she'd left behind--a world of dangerous secrets, of Arslan, and of longing for what will always be just out of reach.

"The inner lives of [Shipstead's] characters feel as real and immediate as the shifting settings they inhabit: still-gritty mid-1970s Manhattan, shabbily elegant Paris, the sunbaked suburban sprawl of Southern California." --Entertainment Weekly

Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780345804617
  • ISBN-10: 0345804619
  • Publisher: Vintage
  • Publish Date: January 2015
  • Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.6 pounds
  • Page Count: 272

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TOP PICK FOR BOOK CLUBS
Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead revisits the era of Soviet ballet superstars, providing a backstage look at the demanding lives of professional dancers. Using Mikhail Baryshnikov’s famous defection as her point of departure, Shipstead tells the story of Arslan Rusakov, a Russian virtuoso who shakes up the ballet world after seeking asylum in America. Arslan struggles to make sense of his fame and of life in the West. He indulges in drugs and sex as he copes with the homesickness and displacement that come with defection. His failed romance with Joan, an American dancer of only average talent, takes the novel in a different direction, as it follows her transition from ballerina to wife and mother. Shipstead writes with insight about the lives of perfomers who sacrifice everything for their careers. This is a fascinating novel that examines the tensions and demands of an exacting vocation—one with repercussions that can last a lifetime.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

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