The Gossip Columnist's Daughter - by Peter Orner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The cold case of a young Hollywood starlet's death sets a contemporary writer on an epic and comic quest to uncover the truth, and its connection to his own family--a new novel by "a major talent" (New York Times) and "one of the most distinctive voices of his generation" (Granta).

Jed Rosenthal hasn't published a book in fourteen years, the mother of his child left him in a "trial separation" that has stretched on indefinitely, and he struggles to navigate the daily sorrows of their co-parenting arrangement. But the implosion of Jed's family is simply a footnote in the larger history of the Rosenthal family's decline.

Just days after the JFK assassination, Karyn "Cookie" Kupcinet was found dead in her Hollywood apartment. The press reported that the 22-year-old was strangled, yet unanswered questions linger to this day. Cookie's parents--Chicago royalty, Irv and Essee Kupcinet--had been close friends with Jed's grandparents, but in the aftermath of her death, their friendship abruptly and inexplicably ended. Decades later, Jed pores over family stories, newspaper archives, old photos, and crime scene notes, believing that if he can divine the truth of Cookie's death--whether it was suicide, murder, or part of a larger conspiracy--it might shed light on a mystery closer to home.

Spanning seventy plus years, and weaving together family drama and a true-life unsolved case, The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is a singular, wryly comic, and deeply human exploration into friendship and the bonds that sustain us.

Review Quotes

"Weaving domestic drama and an unsolved crime with a comic twist, Orner tracks the marital separations, severed friendships, and unexplained death that mark the Rosenthal and Kupcinet families. From Hollywood to Chicago, tragedy reigns, but Jed believes he can unravel the mysteries that plague his family history."--Boston Globe

"A rewarding literary experiment."
--Publishers Weekly

"A wild ride and an immersive Chicago novel, in which the town threatens to toddle off its axis."--Kirkus Reviews

"Broken families are an Orner specialty...So is artful prose...Playing to his strengths, he weaves old-school boldface-type journalism and the stubborn persistence of family secrets."--Los Angeles Times

"Masterfully written, funny, often achingly moving, The Gossip Columnist's Daughter confronts us with at least two central questions: how much of our own daily fumblings in life are passed down to us? And how, precisely, does one learn to love and be loved anyway? There's more here too, of course - the seductive power of celebrity, the ties that should bind but do not - but I'll let you discover these on your own as you treat yourself to this truly unforgettable novel. If there is a more daring and original narrative voice in contemporary American fiction than Peter Orner's, then I don't know whose it is." --Andre Dubus III, bestselling author of The House of Sand and Fog and Ghost Dogs

"Time and time again, Peter Orner has gifted us doors into worlds that remind us, no matter our differences, how connected we are to each other and how much farther we need to traverse to be better. With his first novel in fifteen years, Orner continues to surprise and guide: this is fiction that captures so perfectly a family's mysteries, secrets, and history; and in doing so, captures the story of our country. It's also one of the finest stories on the ever-complex topic of friendship--and the importance of friendship--I have ever read. Which is to say: here is a friend for you, when you need it the most."--Paul Yoon, author of The Hive and the Honey

"The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is a monumental tapestry stitched from history's scraps: neighborhood rumors, family legends, and unsolved mysteries. It's a novel about the secrets we keep, the answers we seek, the unfinished business of the pasts we inherit. Peter Orner has already cemented his reputation as one of the great chroniclers of life in Chicago. With The Gossip Columnist's Daughter he has become one of the great chroniclers of life full stop."--Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

"The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is a fascinating fictional account of a real-life tragedy that captures a Chicago that has largely disappeared. A must-read for anyone interested in Chicago, the underworld, show business, and the important role of gossip columnists during the period between World War Two and the 1960s. Peter Orner weaves an absorbing tale of friendships gone wrong, gangsters, murder, and the struggles of a writer trying to understand both his and his family's past."--Dominic A. Pacyga, author of Chicago: A Biography

"A writer's investigation into the mysterious death of a Hollywood starlet is a springboard for Peter Orner's brilliant and powerfully moving portrait of two Chicago families whose braided lives tell an indelible story of politics, social history, and most of all love--bruising, inexplicable, and enduring love. The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is exquisitely conceived, vast in its reach, and tender in its mercies. Orner is, quite simply, one of the finest writers of our time."--Marisa Silver, New York Times bestselling author of Mary Coin

About the Author

Born in Chicago, Peter Orner is the author of seven acclaimed books including Maggie Brown & Others, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, finalist for the Pen/ Hemingway Award, and Am I Alone Here?, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Best American Stories, and been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. A former Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Orner is chair of the English and Creative Writing Department at Dartmouth College. He lives with his family in Vermont, where he's also a volunteer firefighter.