New York, New York – October 23, 2007 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced that Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Harcourt) will be the next selection in the Barnes & Noble Recommends program. The book goes on sale tomorrow, October 24, and can be purchased at any Barnes & Noble store or online at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com/recommends).
“Alive with the energy of trapped desires, Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a riveting work of literary imagination,” said Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “This suspense-filled novel will pull you right out of your chair and take you on a journey across continents and generations.”
The sixth selection in the Barnes & Noble Recommends program, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, encompasses the confused present of a contemporary young woman, Iris Lockhart; the unsuspected past of Iris’ grandmother, Kitty, adrift in the forgetfulness of Alzheimer’s; and the unknown life of Kitty’s sister, Esme, who has spent a lifetime institutionalized for refusing to accept the conventions of 1930s Edinburgh society. Iris’ complicated life is pushed aside, when Esme’s existence is revealed to her, and she discovers that a great-aunt she never knew has been locked away for 60 years. As the two women become acquainted, Esme’s memories transform Iris’ sense of her family’s past, opening a vault of secrets that will change the character of everything she thought she knew. The taut fabric of O’Farrell’s enthralling narrative enmeshes the reader in a tangled web of jealousy, deception, and betrayal that is shocking, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.
One of Barnes & Noble’s booksellers who helped pick this selection said, “Full of emotion and mystery, this novel, [The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox] took off at warp speed and never let up.” Another bookseller called the book, “immediately gripping and mysterious. I devoured it.”
The Barnes & Noble Recommends program includes:
- Barnes & Noble store events. Discussions of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will be held in Barnes & Noble stores across the country.
- Author appearances. Meet Maggie O’Farrell at Barnes & Noble. Visit www.bn.com/recommends for information on O’Farrell’s in-store events.
- An online book club. Join Maggie O’Farrell in our online book club. Discuss The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox with the author and other readers. Log on to www.bn.com/bookclubs throughout November.
- A free guide. Ask any Barnes & Noble bookseller for a copy of our free guide to starting your own reading group. The guide can also be found online at www.bn.com/recommends.
Selections for Barnes & Noble Recommends are chosen by a group of the company’s booksellers from across the country. Each selection is a book that Barnes & Noble recommends unconditionally, believes is “unputdownable” and especially appropriate for book discussion groups.
The previous five Barnes & Noble Recommends selections were:
- Diane Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale (Atria Books), now out in paperback
- Chris Bohjalian’s The Double Bind (Shaye Areheart Books)
- Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Harcourt)
- Paulette Jiles’ Stormy Weather (William Morrow)
- Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells (Bantam Books)
Each of these novels, including The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, qualify as riveting reads, books of exceptional quality worthy of stimulating discussion.
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About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 792 bookstores in 50 states. For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation’s top bookseller brand, as determined by a brand’s overall strength based on its combination of familiarity, quality and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites.
General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.
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