by Jane Hamilton

Already a Heartland Indie Bestseller!

Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group USA
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com
ISBN 13:  9780446538954
$22.99 Hardcover
Available April 9, 2009
Fiction / Satire – Set in a small town in Wisconsin.

Bestselling author Jane Hamilton’s funny, sexy, provocative, and dark satirical novel turns the chick-lit genre upside-down.

“This portrait of marriage and love exudes sympathy for each of its characters-no matter how insignificant or troubled their dreams and desires may seem. Amusing, brazen, and wise, LAURA RIDER’S MASTERPIECE cleverly shows how life can be like a fragrant peony in full bloom, ants and all.”
- Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, KS

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MBA Bookseller Information

For more information about this book, please contact your Hachette Book Group USA sales rep.  Order from Hachette Book Group USA or your preferred wholesaler. If you would like to inquire about publicity and events for author Jane Hamilton, please contact your Hachette sales rep and Mindy Im, Hachette Marketing.

MBA Booksellers: earn up to $75 in rebates for promoting this book!  See the marketing information and rebate form below.

Downloads

• Midwest Connections Rebate Form (PDF) – coming
• Full-color sign/flyer (PDF)
• PW Web exclusive interview with Jane Hamilton (PDF)
• Author photo (JPG)
• Book photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

About the Book

“Jane Hamilton’s new novel is a departure.  Whereas her previous works mine the landscapes of tragic events, LAURA RIDER’S MASTERPIECE  examines the complexity, joy, and disappointment of a seemingly normal life — more Jane Austen than Jodi Picoult; more Gilmore Girls than Dr. Phil…… The lives of Jenna, Charlie and Laura sever, then graft together into new hybrid forms.  Where they might have wilted, they now bloom bigger, bolder, and more colorful than before.”
- Sarah Bagby, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, KS

“A densely observed and seriously droll novel that reads like a dream.  Astute, brazen, and very funny.”
- Meg Wolitzer, The Ten-Year Nap

Bestselling novelist Jane Hamilton makes her debut at Grand Central Publishing with this funny, sexy, provocative, and dark satirical novel that turns the chick-lit genre upside-down.

Laura and Charlie Rider have been married for twelve years.  Together they’ve run the Prairie Wind Farm nursery in picturesque Wisconsin, where they share a passion for gardening, which overshadowed Laura’s physical passion for Charlie long ago.  Still, there are mostly happy lives – as long as Charlie can continue his simple life of working the land and Laura can keep reading novels while privately writing her own.

Jenna Faroli is the host of a popular radio show and is “the single most famous person in the town of Dover,” in Laura’s eyes.  When Jenna happens to cross Charlie’s path one day and they begin an e-mail correspondence, how can Laura resist using Charlie to try out her new writing skills and converse with her hero?  Together, Laura and Charlie craft florid, strangely intimate messages that entice Jenna in an unexpected way.  Things quickly spin out of control as the lines between Laura’s words and Charlie’s feelings are blurred and complicated, and Jenna has a profound effect on the couple that transforms all three of them in the end.

About the Author

JANE HAMILTON is the author of The Book of Ruth, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction, and A Map of the World, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.  Both The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World have been selections of Oprah’s Book Club.  Her last novel, When Madeline Was Young, was a Washington Post Best Book of 2006.  She lives and writes in an orchard farmhouse in Wisconsin.

Midwest Connections Marketing Plans

• $75 in REBATES from MBA for display photos, ads, features in your newsletters, e-newsletters, and on your store website – print out the REBATE FORM above and follow instructions.
• Contact the publisher to inquire about bookstore events, book club and book group appearances and/or phoners with the author.
• Banners and Midwest Connections page for the book on the MBA website.
• Flyer/sign PDF file and other materials provided by the publisher.
• Reading copies of LAURA RIDER’S MASTERPIECE available from Grand Central Publishing/Hachette and MBA – contact the MBA office if you need a book.
• Print ad you can run in your local paper – earn a rebate from MBA for your ad!
• Midwest Connections stickers, shelf-talkers, signs, bookmarks for in-store displays – earn a display rebate, too.