The Lion Is In
$22.00
| Title | Range | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Trade Discount | 5 + | 25% |
- Description
- Additional information
Description
“One of the sharpest observers of human behavior around.”—Booklist (starred review)
BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SIRACUSA, coming in trade paperback on June 6, 2017!
Tracee is a runaway bride and kleptomaniac. Lana’s an audacious beauty, a recovering alcoholic. Rita is a holy-roller minister’s wife, desperate to escape her marriage. One warm summer’s night, these three women go on the lam together. Their car breaks down on a rural highway in North Carolina and they’re forced to seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned nightclub. Which is where they meet Marcel. And soon everything changes. Marcel, you see, is a lion.
Written with the deftness, humor, and sparkling wit that mark her books, plays, and movies, Delia Ephron’s The Lion Is In is an unforgettable story of friendship, courage, love—and learning to salsa with the king of the jungle.”One of the sharpest observers of human behavior around, Ephron, with her trademark mastery of smart, snappy dialogue, delivers a read-in-one-sitting, feel-good celebration of resiliency and hope.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Imagine if Siegfried & Roy had written Water for Elephants… The Lion Is In is off to the races from the first sentence. [A] fun ride.”—San Antonio Express News
“Readers seeking a heartfelt, offbeat adventure will adore Ephron’s fragile but feisty heroines…The perfect getaway for readers who long to reconnect with their inner selves, this quirky comedy’s sense of wonder will delight and inspire.”—Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Three women embark on a journey of self-discovery, facilitated by a giant feline, in Ephron’s whimsical but winsome third novel.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A gentle fable.”—O, The Oprah Magazine
“The best kind of chick lit—an engaging feminist romance from which the reader emerges with a welcome mood boost. Twinkling with wit and warmth, it also packs a moral punch: We need to forgive not just each other, but ourselves, make amends wherever we can and just ease the heck up already.”—Newark Star Ledger
PRAISE FOR SIRACUSA
A New York Times Bestseller
One of People Magazine’s Top 10 Books of 2016
Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016 (Fiction)
A Washington Post Bestseller • A Los Angeles Times Bestseller • A USA Today Bestseller • One of Vulture’s 100 Greatest Beach Books Ever • A People Magazine Summer Reading Pick • One of Elle, InStyle, and Marie Claire’s Best of July
“A stunning portrait of two marriages coming unraveled during the stress of travel abroad. Insightful and engaging. A must-read!”—Sue Grafton, author of X
“An Italian aria, a Greek tragedy and a modern American masterpiece written by Delia Ephron at the height of her powers. This is a story of two complicated marriages, one vulnerable child, and a trip to Italy that changes each of their lives forever. Secrets, lies, love raging, love dying, and the shame of unrealized potential are exposed in detail under the Sicilian sun. And, like the Moro blood oranges that grow there with abandon, the taste is both sour and sweet at once, but the bitterness that remains is not only haunting but unforgettable.”—Adriana Trigiani, author of The Shoemaker’s Wife
“An unusually crackling, tricky journey into the distant land of other people’s marriages: their secrets, paradoxes, weaknesses, and pleasures. Delia Ephron writes like a warm-blooded Patricia Highsmith, her story’s treachery matched by a deep and easy feel for the various human, imperfect ways that people find themselves bound together, and sometimes painstakingly unbind themselves. An absorbing, tense, and original novel.”—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings Delia Ephron is a bestselling author and screenwriter. She has written novels, including the New York Times bestselling Siracusa, The Lion Is In and Hanging Up; humor books for all ages, including How to Eat Like a Child and Do I Have to Say Hello?; and nonfiction, most recently Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.). Her films include You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Hanging Up (based on her novel), and Michael. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. Her hit play Love, Loss, and What I Wore (co-written with Nora Ephron) ran for more than two years off-Broadway and has been performed all over the world. She lives in New York City.
INTRODUCTION
Three women are stranded in a small town when their getaway car breaks down. While hiding themselves from their pasts, and their secrets from each other, they find themselves bound in friendship and facing down their demons. The Lion is In is a whimsical but unforgettable story of three very different women embarking on a journey of self discovery influenced by the wise counsel of a retired circus lion.
ABOUT DELIA EPHRON
Delia Ephron is a bestselling author and screenwriter. Her movies include The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, You’ve Got Mail, Hanging Up (based on her novel), and Michael. She has written novels for adults and teenagers, books of humor, including How to Eat Like a Child, and essays. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, More, and The Huffington Post. Recently, she collaborated with Nora Ephron on a play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which ran for two years off–Broadway and has been performed in cities around the world, including Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Sydney.
A CONVERSATION WITH ALEXANDRA FULLER
1) What was your inspiration for this book?
A dream.
A most vivid dream about three women and a lion. There were two women in their twenties. I knew their names: Lana and Tracee. Lana was wearing ripped jeans, a t–shirt and those flat plastic shoes called Jellies. Tracee was in a wedding dress and veil. I knew that they were best friends from childhood, and there was an older woman with them, who, when I woke up, I named Rita. Lana, Tracee and Rita were in a strange place-a roadhouse bar, perhaps a seedy nightclub, built of all different construction materials hammered every which way. Living inside this odd looking roadhouse by the side of a rural highway in North Carolina (a state I had never visited in my life) was the bar’s mascot-Marcel, the lion. When I woke up, I wondered for a second if what I dreamed was real. Then I knew it was my next novel. For the two years I lived inside this world –– three women on the run, each with secrets, each with transgressions, real and imagined –– and the lion who would change their lives.
2) Did you consider any other animals as your focus or was the story always built around a lion? Does the lion symbolize something to you?
Marcel, my lion, was in the dream. And the dream told me the story. But I have a dog. I absolutely love dogs – and it changed my life to have a dog. They are so playful, and funny, and calming, and magical. One of my regrets is that I didn’t have dogs my whole life, and I transferred some of my affection for my dog to Marcel. But Marcel is a lion. He never does anything that a lion wouldn’t/couldn’t do (he was vetted by an expert at the San Diego Wild Animal Park) but in the course of the novel he is friend, shrink, higher power, dance partner, role model, in a way even lover. He’s in a cage, that’s important. He needs to be free, as do they all of the things that are holding them back. In our lives, sometimes to change we have to get in the cage with the lion. And sometimes we need to roar.
3) Which character did you most identify with?
All my characters are personal. With Rita, I especially identified with how trapped she was in her life, and her need to find the bravery to change. “Who I am is not a life sentence,” says Rita. That is the central issue for all the characters. With Tracee, I identified strongly with her need for love, and with Lana I identified with the struggle against her own demons. Lana has to believe in herself. I also believe in sisterhood – they all needed each other to get through, and that is something I feel about my close friends, how much braver they make me.
4) Most readers would look at Harry and his treatment of Rita with aversion. What are your feelings on Harry? Do you find it difficult to write unlikeable characters?
I don’t find it difficult to write unlikeable characters. It’s fun actually. It’s important, however, that they are complex. Harry’s tyrannical for sure, but he’s weak and needy and a little lost too. I have empathy for him. He doesn’t know joy.
5) What is your next project?
I always have a few things cooking. A book of essays. A screenplay about a close friend of mine who had a very romantic life. And a novel about a couple on vacation that goes haywire.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
US
Additional information
| Dimensions | 0.7000 × 5.1700 × 8.0000 in |
|---|---|
| Imprint | |
| ISBN-13 | |
| ISBN-10 | |
| Author | |
| Audience | |
| BISAC | |
| Subjects | father of the bride gift, witty, beach read, FIC016000, Female friendship, kleptomania, page turner, alcoholic, mother of the bride gift, mother of bride gift, father of the bride gifts, sisterhood, teenage romance, how to eat like a child, hanging up, resiliency, runaway bride, youve got mail, sisterhood of the traveling pants, beachy, siracusa, fiction, hope, adventure, marriage, north carolina, family, alcoholism, comedy, love, FIC045000, women, Friendship, novel, coming of age, humor, courage, female protagonist, chick lit, funny, funny books |
