Charlotte Cane - by Susan Fox (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"I'm already hungry for Susan Fox's next book." --Richard Russo

A writer in her sixties enjoying an unexpected career resurgence is threatened by anonymous allegations of a long-ago scandal in this searing and provocative debut novel in the vein of Rebecca Makkai and Julia May Jonas, that explores complicity, moral ambiguity, and the shifting cultural expectations that challenge the stories we tell ourselves.

Charlotte Cane is the type of character rarely given center stage. Now in her sixties, she is revered yet relegated to a shelf of canonical aging women writers. Throughout her career she's done what she had to do to succeed in the male-dominated literary world.

After years of increasing irrelevance, Charlotte is shocked to learn that her latest book has landed her a coveted spot on a prestigious prize's longlist. It seems that Charlotte might finally have her long-awaited chance in the sun, until she is confronted by Ana, a former student she barely remembers from twenty-five years ago.

Ana is not a fan. Over an increasingly uncomfortable drink at a hotel bar, she hints at a dangerous shared history with Charlotte. As the older woman escapes to her room, Ana utters a name that triggers an avalanche of memories. A few days later, someone with the handle "@ana93" begins posting a serialized "short story" that mirrors a painful chapter from Charlotte's past: an affair that spiraled into tragedy, and the damage inflicted on a writer's young family.

As Charlotte grows desperate to stop Ana from exposing her secrets--secrets that could not only derail her career, but also her marriage and the mental stability of her only son--she is forced to reckon with the role she's played in other people's stories.

Suspenseful and thought-provoking, Susan Fox's gripping, expertly wrought novel shatters the binary of "right" and "wrong," questions the fallibility of memory, and explores the way guilt can warp over time. Ultimately, Charlotte Cane asks the questions we are desperate to avoid: what--or who--will we sacrifice to achieve success, and how far will we go to avoid being portrayed as the villain?

Review Quotes

"A terrific debut. Academic novels are usually good for a belly laugh or two, but they don't usually twist your stomach into anxious knots like Charlotte Cane did mine. I just turned the last page and I'm already hungry for Susan Fox's next book." --Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath "Fool" novels

"Smart, perceptive, and as provocative as its self-made heroine, Susan Fox's timely debut--the story of a middle-aged author with a possible triumph in her future and transgressions in her past--asks big questions about creativity and privilege, power and perspective and the damage done in the name of creation. I'll be thinking about this astonishing, assured debut for a long time." --Jennifer Weiner, New York Times bestselling author of The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits

"In the heat of the #MeToo moment, the past comes calling for author Charlotte Cane, and a younger generation's judgment of that past differs confoundingly from her own. She's never viewed herself as a victim, nor as a perpetrator for that matter: is she wrong? A smart, suspenseful, morally complex debut from Susan Fox." --Jonathan Dee, author of Sugar Street and The Privileges

"In this arresting debut, Fox writes her titular character with a brittle broken wine glass on skin--appalling and enthralling at the same time. She enfolds us in two women's experiences with detailed physicality and immediacy, creating an unswerving interior view on what has changed--and what hasn't--for ambitious women in our culture. An absolute must-read." --Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York Times bestselling author of At Midnight Comes the Cry

"Unsettling, astute, and riveting. Whose interpretation of the past do we trust when the rules seem to be shifting and everyone's memory is colored by their own reality? Charlotte Cane is nearing the height of her career when she stumbles into the ghosts of her past indiscretions. Is she a victim or a perpetrator, a hardworking writer being stalked or a selfish manipulator who is facing her comeuppance? This novel is too smart and nuanced to leave it as simple as that." --Eowyn Ivey, Pulitzer finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Snow Child and Black Woods Blue Sky.

"Who is Charlotte Cane? Feminist icon or imposter, literary superstar or relic with a case of selective amnesia, survivor or abuser? The answers are rivetingly complicated. You simply must read Susan Fox's dazzling debut, because whoever she really is, Charlotte Cane is one of the most fascinating literary characters of our time." --Elizabeth Gaffney, author of Metropolis and When the World Was Young

"This debut novel is highly recommended for discussion groups that enjoy books that explore the complications of women's lives, motivations, and careers." --Library Journal

"Positioning an author as both prey and predator creates a target-rich environment, and Fox comes loaded with ammo in her striking debut novel of college writer-in-residence Charlotte Cane....The question of who gets to tell one's own story is a thorny subject for anyone, and Fox explores Charlotte's vulnerabilities with astonishing insight and honesty, probing the moral ambiguities of her unreliable narrator with the assurance of a seasoned novelist." --Booklist (starred review)