SO LONG AT THE FAIR
A Novel
by Christina Schwarz
Now available in paperback!
On sale July 14, 2009
Anchor Books / Random House
ISBN-13: 9780307275493
$15.00 Paperback
Doubleday / Random House
$24.95 Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-51029-5
Fiction
“Following one crucial day in a marriage tottering on the brink, Schwarz shows the fragility, complexity, and danger inherent in love. A true American tragedy, full of love as well as despair.”
- Kirkus Reviews“Nobody really knows what goes on in other people’s marriages. Well, nobody except, maybe, Christina Schwarz, who delves with astonishing clarity and honesty into the hearts and heads of those who love, honor, and break all the rules. So Long at the Fair stampedes forward with elegant writing and a swift and noisy plot that held me in its thrall from the first page until the last. Anyone who has ever had a relationship, or is even thinking about having one, should read this book.”
-Betsy Carter, author of Swim to Me“SO LONG AT THE FAIR is both compelling and intimate. Christina Schwarz dives deeply into the hearts and minds of her characters, and their dynamics are utterly convincing. The result is a literary page-turner of immense satisfaction.”
-Patrick Ryan, author of Send Me
SO LONG AT THE FAIR is a favorite with book clubs and reading groups! Download the new Reading Group Guide below.
Buy this book from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller! Click here for the directory of our member bookstores.
MBA Bookseller Information
Order from your Random House rep or through wholesalers. SO LONG AT THE FAIR is a great choice for reading groups. We encourage you to recommend it to your store’s book clubs and reading groups!
Christina Schwarz does not live in the region, but she may be available for phoners with stores and book clubs. Contact Nicole Dewey, Director of Publicity at Doubleday, to inquire about the author’s availability: ndewey@randomhouse.com , 212-782-9784
MBA and the publisher would love to have your comments, reviews, and praise for this fascinating book. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!
Downloads
- NEW! Reading Group Guide (PDF) — paperback
- NEW! Full-color sign/flyer (PDF) — paperback
- Full-color sign/flyer (PDF) — hardcover
- Small B&W print ad (PDF) — hardcover
- Praise for the book and author (PDF)
- NEW! Book photo – low res (JPG) — paperback
- Book photo (JPG) — hardcover
- Author photo (JPG)
- Midwest Connections Rebate Form (PDF) — rebates were available only for the 2008 hardcover edition
- Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials
About the Book
Acclaim for Christina Schwarz’s #1 bestseller Drowning Ruth
“Powerful . . . Suspenseful . . . Richly textured . . . [A] chilling, precociously good start to a bright new novelist’s career.”
- New York Times“A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel. . . Drowning Ruth is a complex and rewarding debut.”
- Anita Shreve, author of Sea Glass“Gripping . . . A story of deep family rivalries . . . A remarkable debut.”
- New York Times Book Review“Riveting . . . A very suspenseful tale, one that will keep readers up shivering in the night.”
- USA Today
The bestselling author of Drowning Ruth returns to the small-town Wisconsin she so brilliantly evoked with this gripping novel about love, marriage, and adultery.
In the summer of 1963 a plot for revenge destroys a career, a friendship, and a family. The consequences of the scandalous event continue to reverberate, touching the next generation. Thirty years later, over the course of one day, Jon struggles to decide whether to end his affair or his marriage. His wife, Ginny, moving closer to discovering his adultery, begins working for an older man who is mysteriously connected to their families’ pasts. And Jon’s mistress is being courted by a suitor who may be more menacing than he initially seems. As relationships among the characters ebb and flow on that July day, Christina Schwarz illuminates the ties that bind people together-and the surprising risks they take in the name of love.
As in Drowning Ruth, Schwarz weaves past and present into a richly textured portrait of the secrets and deceptions that simmer beneath everyday life in a small midwestern town. With page-turning intensity and in prose at once lush and precise, she beautifully conjures the emotional labyrinth of a marriage on the brink of collapse and proves that no matter how hard we work to stifle them, the secrets of the past refuse to be ignored.
Betrayal versus loyalty . . . lust versus love . . . infidelity versus honor. Welcome to the complex web of Christina Schwarz’s dazzling new novel, So Long at the Fair.
CHRISTINA SCHWARZ is the author of the critically acclaimed All Is Vanity and Drowning Ruth, a #1 bestseller in both hardcover and paperback, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and optioned by Wes Craven for Miramax. She lives in New Hampshire.
