The Road from Belhaven - by Margot Livesey

About the Book

"From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late 19th century Scotland Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven farm, Lizzie Craig discovers at a young age that she can see into the future. Her gift of sight is selective-she doesn't, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family on her beloved farm. But she does see "pictures" that foretell various incidents and accidents and begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it. Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion, and when faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes what turns out to be a terrible mistake. But while Lizzie can't change the past, her second sight may allow her a second chance. Luminous and transporting, The Road from Belhaven once again displays "the marvelous control of a writer who conjures equally well the tangible, sensory world . . . and the mysteries, stranger and wilder, that flicker at the border of that world." (The Boston Globe)"--

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late-nineteenth-century Scotland

"Bewitching and seductive." --Rebecca Makkai, author of I Have Some Questions for You - "A treasure: a writer who understands the magic and mysteries of the human soul." --Chris Bohjalian, author of Hour of the Witch - "This book is a cold, clear, perfect lake." --Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds

Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective--she doesn't, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her "pictures" foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it.

Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance.

Luminous and transporting, The Road from Belhaven once again displays "the marvelous control of a writer who conjures equally well the tangible, sensory world . . . and the mysteries, stranger and wilder, that flicker at the border of that world." --The Boston Globe

Review Quotes

"Piercing and eloquent. . . . The prose is radiant. . . . A gem of a novel." --The Washington Post

"Powerful and engaging. . . . Margot Livesey is no slouch when it comes to casting a mesmerizing spell with her language; one of her other indelible and pleasure-inducing trademarks is lacing her fiction with shimmers of otherworldliness. . . . Lizzie is a marvel of a character." --Boston Globe

"Margot Livesey is an incandescent writer, generous and graceful, always imbuing her characters with astonishing humanity and grace. I love all Livesey's books, but The Road From Belhaven has become my new favorite; I felt so deeply for Lizzie that I worried about her fate with the same love and indignation and hope I would have for a flesh-and-blood friend of my youth. This book is a cold, clear, perfect lake."--Lauren Groff, New York Times best-selling author of The Vaster Wilds

"Gracefully evokes the magic and mystery of the rural world and the vitality and harshness of city life." --The New Yorker

"A master class in storytelling.... If there's any complaint to be made about The Road from Belhaven, it's that we don't get to linger there longer." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"If you haven't dived into the novels of Margot Livesey, her new The Road from Belhaven is an excellent place to start. . . . Her books vividly convey the joys and sorrows of ordinary, usually rural, life but they also leave room for the extraordinary. . . . Livesey has keen insight into the way people behave and she crafts lyrical, lucid sentences, but what's best about her work is her understanding that magic and mystery are part of everyday life." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"This novel casts a spell. Rich with tangible detail, The Road from Belhaven is magical as well, not least in the way it stops time for the reader. I inhaled it in one day."--Allegra Goodman, New York Times best-selling author of Sam

"Margot Livesey is a treasure: a writer who understands the magic and mysteries of the human soul, and brings that wisdom to novels that are both riveting and lush. The Road from Belhaven is a smart, profound, and beautiful book that draws you in and holds you tight."--Chris Bohjalian, New York Times best-selling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch

"The Road from Belhaven is a marvel. In this radiantly beautiful novel, Margot Livesey introduces us to Lizzie Craig, an unforgettable 19th-century Scottish clairvoyant haunted by her future as much as her past. Livesey has crafted a story as thrilling as it is thoughtful, one animated by life's fundamental question: how do we change?"--Anthony Marra, New York Times best-selling author of Mercury Pictures Presents

"Margot Livesey is a great, gifted storyteller, with a moral compass of pure gold and the necessary clear eyes to understand and love us all, with our mistakes and misunderstandings and damages. She holds the world of Belhaven Farm up to her bright, sharp vision and the light and the shadows dance for generations."--Amy Bloom, New York Times best-selling author of In Love

"Margot Livesey's prose is so lucid, so precise, and so understated as she goes about conjuring and sustaining the lives of her characters, that the reader hardly notices how deep a claim Lizzie Craig has laid on the heart until it is in danger of breaking on her behalf. The only thing I could think to do when I finished the book was to begin again, I didn't want it to end."--Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers

"Margot Livesey shines bright, as always - giving us both the beauty of the world and the roiling tumult of the souls within it. Bewitching and seductive, The Road from Belhaven is a vision." --Rebecca Makkai, New York Times best-selling author of I Have Some Questions for You and The Great Believers

"A lyrical and tender coming-of-age tale." --Town and Country

"Powerful.... With the sociological complexity of an Edith Wharton novel, Livesey portrays Lizzie butting up against gendered restrictions on her freedom .... Livesey's lyrical perfection comes at no expense to the plot, which barrels like a runaway train. This is a gem." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Livesey's vibrant imagery and profound compassion deliver a tragic coming-of-age novel that resonates with her gifted protagonist's resourcefulness." --Booklist, starred review

"[An] unconventional coming-of-age tale with engaging characters embedded in an absorbing story." --Kirkus Reviews

"Compassionately drawn and emotionally charged, Margot Livesey's novel maps the tenderest places of the human heart and soul and once again displays her indelible grasp on the human condition." --Shelf Awareness

About the Author

MARGOT LIVESEY was born and grew up on the edge of the Scottish Highlands. She is the author of a collection of stories and nine other novels, including Eva Moves the Furniture, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, and The Boy in the Field. She has received awards from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is on the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.