I Give It to You

Praise

“A novel of philosophical and creative inquiry, cleverly plotted and packed with great characters…. Immensely satisfying…. [A] beautifully fractal novel.”
—The Guardian

“The stories at the heart of Valerie Martin’s latest novel, I Give It to You, are freely, but not always innocently, shared. And what Martin’s narrator does with them raises prickly questions of ownership, artistic license and ethical responsibility.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Martin’s prose, while effortlessly readable, can take deliciously unexpected turns . . . As enticing as the Salviati family’s history is, it’s the sense of a game being played on multiple levels that lends I Give It to You its deepest powers of seduction.”
—The Seattle Times

“Valerie Martin has always been a consummate storyteller, but in her new novel she tackles the question of where do a writer’s stories come from. And to whom does a story belong? The person it happened to or the one who tells it. In some ways all writers betray their subjects, and Valerie Martin digs into the heart of that betrayal. Reminiscent of Rachel Cusk’s Outline Martin masterfully gives voice to those who have been silenced, whose stories would be lost were it not for a writer to retell it.”
—Mary Morris, author of All the Way to the Tigers

“Yes, the narrator of Martin’s new novel is a middle-aged American woman vacationing in Tuscany, but this prickly, uncomfortably relevant dive into personal and societal ethics is no escapist romance . . . Martin parses personal and social politics with methodical care and a reserved tone reminiscent of Edith Wharton.”
—Kirkus, (starred review)

Praise for Sea Lovers:

“She always produces something unexpected and revelatory.” 
—Jane Smiley, author of Perestroika in Paris

Praise for Ghost of the Mary Celeste:

“A writer of immense talent and insight.” 
—Yann Martel, author of The Life of Pi
 
“Wonderfully ingenious, compelling, convincing and exciting.” 
—John Banville, author of Mrs. Osmond

Praise for Confessions of Edward Day:

“Martin writes with amplitude, precision, grace, and wit.”
—Margaret Atwood, New York Times Book Review