Karlmarx.com - by Susan Coll (Paperback)

About the Book

A young graduate student realizes that her own life is starting to mirror that of her thesis subject--Karl Marx's tragic daughter Eleanor. Deftly weaving fact and fiction, past and present, socialist theory and side-splitting humor, Susan Coll presents a warm and witty novel in the tradition of Cathleen Schine, Laura Zigman, and the Ephron sisters. "karlmarx.com" is a love story full of wonderful absurdities.

Book Synopsis

Ella Kennedy is in a rut. Nearly 30, it seems she is on the verge of becoming both a perpetual graduate student and a continual failure at relationships. She has spent some three years at Columbia University ripping up outlines for thesis topics as her chosen field of Marxist scholarship becomes increasingly irrelevant. Out of money and temporarily estranged from her obscenely wealthy father---America's king of discount merchandising---she is forced to take a job in Washington D.C. at the fledgling Institute of Thought. Her assignment: establish a web site and mail order catalogue to market Karl Marx paraphernalia. Her dilemma: she is computer illiterate, and is also distracted by the fact that she has finally found a thesis topic that she finds engaging. Against the advice of her advisor, she sets out to document the tragic life of Karl Marx's youngest daughter, Eleanor---a brilliant woman who self-destructed during the course of a bad relationship. Meanwhile, her first day on the job Ella finds a lost ornithologist named Nigel Lark at the door. He is adorably disheveled and has a delicious accent and it is love at first sight. As their relationship quickly develops, however, it occurs to Ella that her own life is beginning to parallel the unfortunate path of her dissertation subject. For one thing, Nigel wears a wedding band on his left hand and he doesn't want to talk about it.

Review Quotes

Binnie Kirshenbaum author of "Pure Poetry""karlmarx.com" lives up to its deliciously wicked, wry, and witty title. With this charming debut novel, Susan Coll manages to stylishly juggle the contemporary dilemmas of her heroine, Ella Kennedy, the political theories of Karl Marx, and the tragic story of his daughter Eleanor. The result is a thinking girl's treat.

Jacki Lyden author of "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba" If Jane Austen had placed her intelligent and sophisticated heroine, Emma, into the vast urban landscape of early-twenty-first-century life and not left her dodging about those gardens and great halls, she would be reborn as Susan Coll's questing and delightfully droll Ella Kennedy, mixing manners, meaning, and oh, pursuing not Mr. Knightley but Nigel...irresistible....Read it!

Binnie Kirshenbaum

author of "Pure Poetry"

"karlmarx.com" lives up to its deliciously wicked, wry, and witty title. With this charming debut novel, Susan Coll manages to stylishly juggle the contemporary dilemmas of her heroine, Ella Kennedy, the political theories of Karl Marx, and the tragic story of his daughter Eleanor. The result is a thinking girl's treat.

Bob Woodward

"karlmarx.com" is a powerful, hilarious story about the convergence of history, .com mania, personal secrets, and unexplainable sexual obsession. There's a little bit (or a lot) of Susan Coll's heroine, Ella, in all of us. This is the best novel about teetering on the edge of -- and taking the plunge into -- contemporary madness that I've read in years.

Jacki Lyden

author of "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba"

If Jane Austen had placed her intelligent and sophisticated heroine, Emma, into the vast urban landscape of early-twenty-first-century life and not left her dodging about those gardens and great halls, she would be reborn as Susan Coll's questing and delightfully droll Ella Kennedy, mixing manners, meaning, and oh, pursuing not Mr. Knightley but Nigel...irresistible....Read it!

Bob Woodward "karlmarx.com" is a powerful, hilarious story about the convergence of history, .com mania, personal secrets, and unexplainable sexual obsession. There's a little bit (or a lot) of Susan Coll's heroine, Ella, in all of us. This is the best novel about teetering on the edge of -- and taking the plunge into -- contemporary madness that I've read in years.

About the Author

Susan Coll's articles and reviews have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post Book World, and The Asian Wall Street Journal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, the author and journalist Steve Coll, and their three children