The English Teacher - by Lily King (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"[A] domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller."--Elle

"Beautifully written and carefully observed . . . King is a wildly talented writer." --Chicago Tribune

Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best English teachers Fayer has ever had. Living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled.

Peter, however, welcomes the changes. Excited to move off campus, eager to have siblings at last, Peter anticipates a regular life with a "normal" family. But the Belou children are still grieving, and the memory of their recently dead mother exerts a powerful hold on the house. As Vida begins teaching her signature book, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, a nineteenth-century tale of an ostracized woman and social injustice, its themes begin to echo eerily in her own life and Peter sees that the mother he perceived as indomitable is collapsing and it is up to him to help.

Review Quotes

A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year

A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Best Novels of the Year

People Magazine Critics Choice Pick

"Beautifully written and carefully observed . . . King is a wildly talented writer." --Chicago Tribune

"[King] brings this beautifully rendered novel to a dramatic denouement that is once surprising and realistic."--Los Angeles Times

"[A] beautifully written follow-up . . . an engaging and moving read." --Entertainment Weekly

"[A] domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller, offering readers the best of two traditionally very different worlds." --Elle

"A marriage of single parents is more often the stuff of sitcoms than of serious novels, but King uses it to great effect in this intense character study. . . . King renders Vida's seething withholding in a free, direct style that captures everything . . . She's also excellent on the children's reactions to each other as the households come together and then separate, dramatically and perhaps permanently." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Spare but acutely observed . . . This fine book demonstrates how a short novel can illuminate difficult real-life issues with sensitivity and insight." -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"This wise and moving novel is much like Sue Miller's fiction. . . . [The] narration alternates very effectively. . . . But the heart of the story is its lovely depiction of wounded people struggling to find solace and stability in each other." -- Arizona Republic

"King has superbly crafted the psyche of these principal characters. . . . [She] has delved into the depths of two lonely souls and treated us to a wonderful experience." --Tampa Tribune

"From its powerful beginning, Lily King's The English Teacher soars. It is a book filled with surprises; a novel that takes unexpected turns. . . . King is a masterful storyteller. . . . An uplifting book with a message of hope." --Portland Press Herald

"King beautifully delineates the grieving children in all their confused steps toward recovery." --Kirkus Reviews

"Lily King writes equally movingly and beautifully about both the large, dramatic and the small, seemingly inconsequential acts that destroy and define family." --Lily Tuck, winner of the National Book Award for The News From Paraguay

"King delicately delves into the fragile bonds holding families together, even when logic favors their dissolution . . . [She] writes with subtle clarity, displaying an intuitive understanding of the vulnerable psyches of teenagers, and with pinpoint perception of her characters' inner lives." --Booklist

About the Author

Lily King is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, including Euphoria, Writers & Lovers, and Heart the Lover, as well as the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Book Award for Fiction, and a Whiting Award. Her books have been translated into twenty-eight languages. She lives in Portland, Maine.