Alice McDermott is the author of seven previous novels, including After This; Child of My Heart; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; At Weddings and Wakes; and Someone--all published by FSG. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were all finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University.
New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2017
The Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Fiction 2017
The Wall Street Journal's Top 10 Novels of 2017
Time Magazine's Top 10 Novels of 2017
NPR's Best Books of 2017
Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction & Best Historical Fiction of 2017
Library Journal's Top 10 Novels of 2017
"McDermott has extended her range and deepened it, allowing for
more darkness, more generous lashings of the spiritual . . . Vivid
and arresting . . . Marvelously evocative." --Mary Gordon, The New
York Times Book Review"Beautifully observed, quietly absorbing . .
. This enveloping novel, too, is a tonic, if not a cure." --Heller
McAlpin, NPR"[T]he precision of a master . . . [A] great novel."
--The Wall Street Journal"Stunning... McDermott has created a
haunting and vivid portrait of an Irish Catholic clan in early 20th
century America." --The Associated Press"Brilliant... perhaps her
finest work to date." --Michael Magras, The Houston Chronicle"A
remarkable snapshot of early 20th-century Irish-Catholic Brooklyn."
--Entertainment Weekly
"[B]eautifully crafted . . . McDermott illuminates every-day scenes
with such precise, unadorned descriptions that the reader feels he
or she is there, hidden in the background . . . [Everything] is
treated with McDermott's exquisite language, tinged with her
signature wit.... [A] novel to savor and to share."
--Bookpage"McDermott is a poet of corporeal description . . . it's
the way she marries the spirit to the physical world that makes her
work transcendent . . . The Ninth Hour is a story with the simple
grace of a votive candle in a dark church." --Sarah Begley, Time"In
this enveloping, emotionally intricate, suspenseful drama,
McDermott lures readers into her latest meticulously rendered Irish
American enclave. . . Like Alice Munro, McDermott is profoundly
observant and mischievously witty, a sensitive and consummate
illuminator of the realization of the self, the ravages of illness
and loss, and the radiance of generosity. . . McDermott's
extraordinary precision, compassion, and artistry are entrancing
and sublime. . . This is one of literary master McDermott's most
exquisite works." --Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review"This
seamlessly written new work from National Book Award winner
McDermott asks how much we owe others, how much we owe ourselves,
and, of course, McDermott's consistent attention to the Catholic
faith, how much we owe God . . . In lucid, flowing prose, McDermott
weaves her character' stories to powerful effect. Highly
recommended." --Library Journal, starred review"McDermott delivers
an immense, brilliant novel about the limits of faith, the power of
sacrifice, and the cost of forgiveness . . . It's the thread that
follows Sally's coming of age and eventual lapse of faith that is
the most absorbing. Scenes detailing her benevolent encounters . .
. are paradoxically grotesque and irresistible . . . McDermott
exhibits a keen eye for character." --Publishers Weekly, starred
review"Everything that her readers, the National Book Award
committee, and the Pulitzer Prize judges love about McDermott's
stories of Irish-Catholic American life is back." --Kirkus Reviews,
starred review"The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott: National Book
Award winner McDermott is simply one of the finest living Catholic
writers, and her new novel looks to capture the spirit of her
previous work: families and cultures strained by the optimism of
faith tempered by the suffering of reality. ... A generational
novel sure to appeal to longtime McDermott fans, and to bring-in
new readers as well." --The Millions"Extraordinary . . .
Astonishing . . . Compelling . . . Surely there has never been as
strong and clear-eyed a novel about kindness as Alice McDermott's
The Ninth Hour . . . McDermott is yet again at the height of her
formidable powers. This work of art comes to us at a time when, as
much as ever, we need a call to compassion." --East Hampton
Star"Any good and proper Most-Anticipated-Fiction list of mine will
always start with Alice McDermott." --The Quivering Pen
"McDermott [is] the master of understated storytelling."
--Washington Independent Review of BooksPublishers Weekly Top 10
Literary Fiction Picks for Fall 2017Excerpted in The New Yorker
PRAISE FOR ALICE MCDERMOTT "McDermott has the soul of an
archaeologist--excavating shards of the daily routine, closely
examining the cracks and crevices of the human heart." --O
Magazine"Exquisite. . . deft. . . filled with so much universal
experience, such haunting imagery, such urgent matters of life and
death." --The New York Times"Packed with complexity and emotion"
--The Washington Post"Filled with subtle insights and abundant
empathy and grace." --USA Today"Lyrical study of quotidian life. .
. McDermott manages to write lyrically in plain language, she is
able to find the drama in uninflected experience." --Los Angeles
Times"With virtuosic concision, McDermott assembles this swirl of
seemingly mundane anecdotes into a powerful examination of love,
mortality, and 'the way of all flesh.'" --The New Yorker"The
micropoetry elevates the book from a gently story to a multilayered
Our Town-like tale." --People "Each slide, each scene, from the
ostensibly inconsequential to the clearly momentous, is illuminated
with equal care." --The New York Times Book Review"The landscape of
memory is a chiaroscuro in motion." --Boston Globe"That's the
spectacular power of McDermott's writing: Without ever putting on
literary airs, she reveals to us what's distinct about characters
who don't have the ego or eloquence to make a case for themselves
as being anything special." --Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air,
NPR"Extraordinary art woven out of ordinary lives." --The Quivering
Pen"Gripping and resonant. . . In her own way, she achieves as much
as the dazzling, muscular 'hysterical realists.' For she manages to
break all the basic rules of writing--only quietly." --NPR"Almost
without exception, each moment . . . is so thoroughly mined so that
every story, nearly every thought it seems, reveals the true
complexity of our lives." --The Coffin Factory"[McDermott] is a
sublime artist of the quotidian." --San Francisco Chronicle"In
beautifully understated language and an unerringly nimble
free-associative narrative, McDermott weaves such an intimate
complex life study that we feel each . . . accumulating loss until
they become staggering." --Elle
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