Louisa Hall

The Carriage House (Scribner Book Company)

A gorgeous debut novel from an award-winning poet and world ranked squash player about an old moneyed family, facing the loss of the youthful talent and storied history that defined them. After suffering a stroke, patriarch William Adair wakes up in his hospital bed and realizes that his family has changed: they are less extraordinary than he had remembered. For more than thirty years, his faith in life was grounded on two indisputable principles: his three daughters' exceptional beauty and talents and the historical resonance of a carriage house built by his grandfather. Now, both have begun to collapse. The carriage house, held captive by a neighbor since a zoning error classified it as her property, has decayed beyond recognition and risks being condemned. William's daughters--all tennis champions in their youth--are in decline. Having lost their father's pride, the three sisters struggle to define themselves. William's ailing wife is suffering from dementia. As she forgets her daughters, they forget themselves. To help him recover, William's daughters take on the battle for the carriage house that once stood as a symbol of their place in the world. Overcoming misunderstandings, betrayals, and wrong turns deep in the past, each of the Adairs ultimately finds a new place of forgiveness and love. "The Carriage House" is a moving, beautifully wrought novel about the complex bonds of siblings and about rebuilding lost lives. Every sentence in The Carriage House is full of clarity, attention, and grace. Louisa Hall is a writer to be admired.—Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds Louisa Hall grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Haverford. After graduating from Harvard she played squash professionally, and was ranked no. 2 in the country. She is completing her Ph.D. in literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her poems have been published in journals such as The New Republic, The Southwest Review, and Ellipsis. The Carriage House is her first novel. She lives in Los Angeles. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MARCH 12, 2013. COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781451688634