Paula Fox Books In Order

Maurice’s Room

Eight-year-old Maurice’s struggle to protect his bedroom full of treasured ‘junk’ from unsympathetic parents undergoes a transformation when the family moves to the country.

Poor George

Paula Fox’s stunning first novel available for the first time since its initial publication in 1967. Poor George gives us George Mecklin, a restless, soft spoken teacher at a private school in Manhattan. Depressed by his life of vague moral purpose, George discovers a local adolescent named Ernest breaking into his house. Rather than hand the boy over to the police, as his nagging wife insists, George instead decides to tutor him. His life consequently implodes. Filled with vividly acid portrayals of American life in the 1960s, prescient explorations of suburban anomie, and a riotously disturbing cast of supporting characters, Poor George is a classic American novel further reminder of Paula Fox’s astonishing literary gifts. Introduction by Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn.

Portrait of Ivan

‘The painter, who was sitting on a stool, stared at Ivan so steadily that Ivan felt a faint touch of fear, as though he were being asked a question he could never answer.’ Thus begins the compelling story of an unusual relationship between a sensitive young boy and an artist whose appearance in his life proves to be life-changing. Ivan’s father is a businessman who pays little attention to him, his mother is dead, and he spends most of his time at his home in New York, attended only by the Haitian housekeeper. His father commissions an artist, Matt Mustazza, to paint a Portrait of Ivan, but he also gives his son another gift: permission to accompany Matt on a trip to paint an old mansion in Florida. The idea of driving all the way from New York to Florida excites him in a way he’s never felt before. Ivan, Matt, and his eccentric friend Miss Manderby and her cat Alyosha pile into a ‘crazy old car’ and head south, where Ivan meets a free-spirited girl, Geneva, and begins the painful but rewarding process of finding himself.

Desperate Characters

‘A towering landmark of postwar Realism…
. A sustained work of prose so lucid and fine it seems less written than carved.’ David Foster WallaceOtto and Sophie Bentwood live childless in a renovated Brooklyn brownstone. The complete works of Goethe line their bookshelf, their stainless steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked curbside. But after Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a half starved neighborhood cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague their lives. The fault lines of their marriage are revealed echoing the fractures of society around them, slowly wrenching itself apart. First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller’s craft in postwar American literature a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with ‘Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Seize the Day.’ ‘Desperate Characters is, simply, a perfect short novel. A few characters, a small stretch of time; setting and action tightly confined and yet, as in Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, everything crucial within our souls bared.’ Andrea Barrett ‘This perfect novel about pain is as clear, and as wholly believable, and as healing, as a fever dream.’ Frederick Busch ‘Brilliant…
. Fox is one of the most attractive writers to come our way in a long, long time.’ The New Yorker Introduced by Jonathan Franzen, one of Granta’s Twenty Best Young American Novelists

The Western Coast

America and the catastrophic world of twentieth century war, mass murder, and horror are the backdrop of this story of Annie Gianfala, a young woman who finds herself cast adrift in Hollywood with World War II looming. Defending herself with despairing stubbornness against personal catastrophe, she is able to save her life and escape. ‘Enormously touching and wholly believable.’ Washington Post Book World

The Slave Dancer

‘Take up the pipe, Claudius,’ a voice growled near Jessie’s bound head. ‘He’s worth nothing without his pipe!’

Snatched from the docks of New Orleans, thirteen year old Jessie is thrown aboard a slave ship where he must play his fife so that captured slaves will ‘dance,’ to keep their muscles strong and their bodies profitable for their owners’ use.

Jessie is sickened as he witnesses the horrible practices of the slave trade. But even those horrors can’t compare to the one final event awaiting Jessie’s witness. Can the cruelty to his fellow human beings be stopped? And will it be too late when it finally does stop?

In a stunning performance by Peter MacNicol, Paula Fox’s enduring classic comes magnificently alive, with the seating truth about a period of American history we would otherwise most likely wish to forget.

‘Fox has woven a spellbinding tale of suspense and survival that will horrify as well as fascinate…
‘

Library Journal starred review

‘A story that movingly and realistically presents one of the most gruesome chapters of history, with all the violence, inhuman conditions, and besti*al aspects of human nature exposed but never exploited in Fox’s graphic, documentary prose.’

Booklist starred review

The Widow’s Children

‘Chekhovian…
. Every line of Fox’s story, every gesture of her characters, is alive and surprising.’ Christopher Lehmann Haupt, New York Times On the eve of their trip to Africa, Laura Maldonada Clapper and her husband, Desmond, sit in a New York City hotel room, drinking scotch and sodas and awaiting the arrival of three friends: Clara Hansen, Laura’s timid, brow beaten daughter from a previous marriage; Carlos, Laura’s flamboyant and charming brother; and Peter Rice, a melancholy editor whom Laura hasn’t seen for over a year. But what begins as a bon voyage party soon parlays into a bitter, claustrophobic clash of family resentment. From the hotel room to the tony restaurant to which the five embark, Laura presides over the escalating innuendo and hostility with imperial cruelty, for she is hiding the knowledge that her mother, the family matriarch, has died of a heart attack that morning. A novel as intense as it is unerringly observed, The Widow’s Children is another revelation of the storyteller’s art from the incomparable Paula Fox. ‘It is the most elegant exploration I have read of the chaos of modern life…
. There is something marvelously honorable in Fox’s work.’ Edith Milton, The Nation ‘A splendid novel…
. A work of marvelous design and subtle synchronization.’ Kirkus Reviews

One-Eyed Cat

‘Ned believes that, with a forbidden gun, he has shot out the eye of a wild cat, and his guilt poisons his life. An outstanding growing up story for all ages about the painful secrets and the struggle to be good…
This riveting story is spun with an eloquent simplicity that belies the skill of its telling…
Adults and children alike will come effortlessly under the spell of this peerless storyteller…
‘ Booklist, starred review. Newbery Honor book; ALA Notable Children’s Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults; Booklist Editors’ Choice; New York Times Book Review Oustanding Children’s Book of the Year.

A Place Apart

Shortly after her father’s death, Victoria and her mother move to a small village outside of Boston where she meets a wealthy teenage boy who teaches her a valuable but painful lesson about life.

A Servant’s Tale

‘A rare and wondrous thing…
. Fox knows how to create a character.’ VogueLuisa de la Cueva was born on the Caribbean island of Malagita, of a plantation owner’s son and a native woman, a servant in the kitchen. Her years on Malagita were sweet with the beauty of bamboo, banana, and mango trees with flocks of silver feathered guinea hens underneath, the magic of a victrola, and the caramel flan that Mama sneaked home from the plantation kitchen. Luisa’s father, fearing revolution, takes his family to New York. In the barrio his once powerful name means nothing, and the family establishes itself in a baseme*nt tenement. For Luisa, Malagita becomes a dream. Luisa does not dream of going to college, as her friend Ellen does, or of winning the lottery, as her father does. She takes a job as a servant and, paradoxically, grows more independent. She marries and later raises a son alone. She works as a servant all her life. A Servant’s Tale is the story of a life that is simple on the surface but full of depth and richness as we come to know it, a story told with consummate grace and compassion by Paula Fox.

The Moonlight Man

How can one month change everything? Catherine Ames’s father is a traveler he always has been. And except for fleeting visits which always left Catherine yearning for more, her father has always been a mystery to her. So when Mr. Ames suggests a month long stay at a summer cabin in Nova Scotia for just the two of them, Catherine is thrilled. Finally, she will know her father as the other girls at school know theirs his habits, his laugh, and most of all, his wonderful stories. But their summer of discovery is soon overshadowed by Mr. Ames’s unpredictability. He drinks a lot more than Catherine imagines other fathers drink. Up close, her fancy free father seems different darker, like the Nova Scotian night sky. As the sun sets on their month together, Catherine struggles against the terrible things she is learning about her father. How can the man she grew up wishing was near seem so far away now? And how can she bring him back to her?

The Village by the Sea / In a Place of Darkness

When her father enters the hospital to have open heart surgery, ten year old Emma is sent to Peconic Bay to live with her tormented aunt and finds the experience painful until she meets a friend who suggests making a miniature village in the sand.

The God of Nightmares

‘Vividly rendered…
haunting…
. Paula Fox writes with silken ease and a sensitivity to nuance.’ NewsdayIn 1941, twenty three year old Helen Bynum leaves home for the first time and sets out from rural New York to find her Aunt Lulu, an aging actress in New Orleans. There she finds a life of passion and adventure, possibilities and choices. Falling in with a bohemian group of intellectuals, she discovers romance and sex, friendship and risk, her world mirrored by the steamy mystery of the French Quarter.

Monkey Island

Abandoned by his parents in New York, eleven year old Clay Garrity befriends two homeless men in the park and learns to survive on the streets in the dead of winter. By the author of The Slave Dancer. K. H. AB.

The Eagle Kite

Liam broke and buried The Eagle Kite the day he saw his father embracing another man. Liam never told his mother and now, three years later, she tells him that Daddy is seriously ill from a blood transfusion he needed a while ago. Liam cannot accept what he fears is the truth or come to terms with his mothers version of it.

Radiance Descending

Angry that his younger brother Jacob is clumsy and odd looking due to his Down’s syndrome and jealous because of all the attention he receives, Paul can’t see his goodness until a series of special happenings make him appreciate Jacob for who he is. H. PW. K. AB.

Traces

This lyric poem by one of our most revered writers captures those faint glimpses of things that you see but don’t quite recognize, sounds you can almost hear, smells, tastes, feelings that can’t quite name. Each line of the poem and each picture in the book depicts the sensual essence of a child’s day, each of which are totally typical and thoroughly unique.

How Many Miles to Babylon?

Ten year old James, doted on by his three aunts, is haunted by the loss of his mother. He doesn’t know where his mother is only that she is sick and he has to live with his aunts in a shoddy city apartment. One day he skips school to go to his secret place, a deserted house. What follows is a roller coaster like adventure story ride through the streets of New York City.

The Stone-Faced Boy

Newbery Medalist Paula Fox’s poignant, sensitively written story of a boy who finally faces his buried emotions. Black-and-white illustrations.

Amzat and His Brothers

The tales the title story, ‘Mezgalten,’ and ‘Olimpia, Cucol, and the Door’ come from the Tuscan village of Pianoro Vecchio and were told to the author by a friend. In all three tales, misfortune is reversed, cleverness rewarded and storytelling language relished. Two color illustrations.

Borrowed Finery

Born in the 1920s to nomadic, bohemian parents, Paula Fox is left at birth in a Manhattan orphanage, then cared for by a poor yet cultivated minister in upstate New York. Her parents, however, soon resurface. Her handsome father is a hard drinking screenwriter who is, for young Paula, ‘part ally, part betrayer.’ Her mother is given to icy bursts of temper that punctuate a deep indifference. How, Fox wonders, is this woman ‘enough of an organic being to have carried me in her belly’?Never sharing more than a few moments with his daughter, Fox’s father allows her to be shuttled from New York City, where she lives with her passive Spanish grandmother, to Cuba, where she roams freely on a relative’s sugarcane plantation, to California, where she finds herself cast upon Hollywood’s seedy margins. The thread binding these wanderings is the ‘Borrowed Finery‘ of the title a few pieces of clothing, almost always lent by kindhearted strangers, which offer Fox a rare glimpse of permanency. Instantly embraced by reviewers and readers as a classic, this astonishing memoir of a writer’s highly unusual beginnings is unforgettable.

The Coldest Winter

In 1946, Paula Fox walked up the gangplank of a partly reconverted Liberty with the classic American hope of finding experience or perhaps salvation in Europe. She was twenty two years old, and would spend the next year moving among the ruins of London, Warsaw, Paris, Prague, Madrid, and other cities as a stringer for a small British news service. In this lucid, affecting memoir, Fox describes her movements across Europe’s scrambled borders: unplanned trips to empty castles and ruined cathedrals, a stint in bombed out Warsaw in the midst of the Communist election takeovers, and nights spent in apartments here and there with distant relatives, friends of friends, and in shabby pensions with little heat, each place echoing with the horrors of the war. A young woman alone, with neither a plan nor a reliable paycheck, Fox made her way with the rest of Europe as the continent rebuilt and rediscovered itself among the ruins. Long revered as a novelist, Fox won over a new generation of readers with her previous memoir, Borrowed Finery. Now, with The Coldest Winter, she recounts another chapter of a life seemingly filled with stories a rare, unsentimental glimpse of the world as seen by a writer at the beginning of an illustrious career.

News from the World

A collection that traces the celebrated career of a grande dame of contemporary literature.

This complete gathering of Paula Fox’s short works spans forty-five illustrious years of her career, from 1965 to 2010. There are perfectly turned stories two of which-‘Grace’ and ‘The Broad Estates of Death’-won the O. Henry Prize in which characters unexpectedly find themselves at a crossroads and struggle to connect with others. There is memoir-a genre where Fox’s honesty, grace, and perception set her apart-in which Fox revisits childhood ideas about art and reality, life in New York in the 1960s, and her relationship with her husband’s family. And there are essays-pointed, funny, relentlessly persuasive pieces on such topics as censorship and the corruption of language. Enlivened by Fox’s signature wit and electrified by her unsparing insights into human nature, News from the World is essential for Fox’s loyal readers and perfect to introduce those who are meeting her for the first time.