What Is Left the Daughter - Brossura

“A novel about the illogic of love and the violent chaos it leaves in its wake.”—New York Times

Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges—the result of their separate involvements with the same compelling woman, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to small-town Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda.

        Setting in motion the novel’s chain of life-altering passions and the wartime perfidy at its core is the arrival of the German student Hans Mohring. Actual historical incidents—including a German U-boat’s sinking of the Nova Scotia–Newfoundland ferry Caribou—lend intense narrative power to Norman’s uncannily layered story.

        Wyatt’s account of the astonishing events leading up to his fathering a beloved daughter spills out twenty-one years later. An utterly stirring novel, What Is Left the Daughter is Howard Norman at his celebrated best.

“Norman writes with spare elegance and dry humor, and the extraordinary emotional power of his slim new novel is earned with authentic grace. Grade: A”—Entertainment Weekly

“Offers a kind of rough-hewn poetry throughout [with an] ardor that shimmers just below the surface.”—Washington Post

An Amazon.com Best Book of the Month

An Indie Next List Pick

Two of Howard Norman’s novels, The Northern Lights (1987) and The Bird Artist (1994), were nominated for the National Book Award. His other novels include The Museum Guard, The Haunting of L, and Devotion. His books have been translated into twelve languages. Norman is the recipient of a Lannan Award in fiction, and he teaches at the University of Maryland.