Best Seller
Paperback
$13.00
Published on Jul 13, 2004 | 256 Pages
On a warm summer night in Oslo, Martin draws Stella into one of the risky games that have defined their ten years together: a balancing act on the edge of their rooftop, nine stories up.
“Exquisitely written. . . . As hallucinatory as August heat.” –The Washington Post
Amid the shouts of horrified onlookers, Stella stumbles, falling for a moment into Martin’s arms before plummeting to her death. (Did he try to save her?)
So begins Linn Ullmann’s transfixing tale of Stella—jealous wife, forbearing lover, angelic nurse, unloved daughter, devoted mother, and finally, a woman possessed of a secret now for-ever lost to the living. As Stella’s life unfolds in the recollections of those she has left behind, we observe the fabric of many lives unraveling. And as Stella herself bears witness from a place beyond death, we come to understand how precarious her life was behind its facade of loveliness and order.
With a quiet power, Stella Descending gives us the backlit dailiness—and the dark metaphysical underworld—of life in a fabled metropolis. And in brilliantly evoking the loneliness that haunts all our intimacies, it becomes a fable of life everywhere.
“Exquisitely written. . . . As hallucinatory as August heat.” –The Washington Post
Amid the shouts of horrified onlookers, Stella stumbles, falling for a moment into Martin’s arms before plummeting to her death. (Did he try to save her?)
So begins Linn Ullmann’s transfixing tale of Stella—jealous wife, forbearing lover, angelic nurse, unloved daughter, devoted mother, and finally, a woman possessed of a secret now for-ever lost to the living. As Stella’s life unfolds in the recollections of those she has left behind, we observe the fabric of many lives unraveling. And as Stella herself bears witness from a place beyond death, we come to understand how precarious her life was behind its facade of loveliness and order.
With a quiet power, Stella Descending gives us the backlit dailiness—and the dark metaphysical underworld—of life in a fabled metropolis. And in brilliantly evoking the loneliness that haunts all our intimacies, it becomes a fable of life everywhere.
Author
Linn Ullmann
Linn Ullmann is a graduate of New York University, where she studied English literature and began work on a Ph.D. She returned to her native Oslo in 1990 to pursue a career in journalism. A prominent literary critic, she also writes a column for Norway’s leading morning newspaper and has published four novels. She lives in Oslo. www.linnullmann.no/en
Learn More about Linn UllmannYou May Also Like
Grace
Paperback
$15.00
Six Plays by Lillian Hellman
Paperback
$22.00
Memory of Kin
Paperback
$17.00
You Don’t Love Me Yet
Paperback
$19.00
A Whole World
Hardcover
$45.00
Miguel Street
Paperback
$16.00
Born Twice
Paperback
$15.00
Come Out the Wilderness
Ebook
$0.99
Brown
Paperback
$18.00
×