The perfect book club pick — now in paperback!
THE CRADLE
A Novel
Patrick Somerville
Back Bay Books / Hachette
$13.99 Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780316036115
On sale April 12, 2010
As featured on Twin Cities Live in our
May 3 TCL What to Read Next TV segment!
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Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville’s first novel tells the story of one man’s journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, THE CRADLE is a uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Somerville reaffirms the idea of family in THE CRADLE, the loving and surprising story of new parents-to-be Marissa and Matthew Bishop, who have set up house in Milwaukee. Marissa is obsessed with finding an heirloom cradle her mother left with when she abandoned her years earlier. Matthew, sent off to track down the cradle, journeys through four states and begins to feel connected to Marissa’s family as well as his own story of neglect and abandonment in foster homes. His journey also connects him to a contemporary poet and children’s author whose son is about to ship out to the war in Iraq. Secrets surface, the two stories intersect, and their lives are forever changed.”The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“THE CRADLE is a fast-paced, compassionate, moral book, whose main character’s troubled past emboldens him to help others.”The New York Times – Janet Maslin
“It would be better to recommend THE CRADLE, a deeply gratifying modern fable, than to reveal too much about its plot. Leave it at this: Matt does find the cradle eventually, but he makes other discoveries that count for much more. In the course of his wanderings, Matt comes to grip with a malaise that has been with him since childhood. As a result, he is more profoundly ready for fatherhood than he would have been without this voyage of self-discovery.”
Download the Reading Group Guide for THE CRADLE.
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MBA BOOKSELLER INFORMATION
Booksellers — Earn up to $100 in rebates from MBA for promoting THE CRADLE!
Midwest Connections rebate form for THE CRADLE (PDF) – now available!
THE CRADLE: A NOVEL by Patrick Somerville ($13.99 Trade Paperback, ISBN: 9780316036115) is available from Hachette Book Group USA or your preferred wholesaler. Be sure to contact the publisher for more information about this title.
If you’d like to inquire about a store or book club event or phoner with author Patrick Somerville, please contact Mindy Im, Associate Director of Marketing, Hachette Book Group, Phone 212-364-1368, mindy.im@hbgusa.com .
MBA and Hachette would love to have your comments and reviews for this debut novel. Please send them to us so we can share your endorsements with your fellow MBA booksellers and with your customers!
DOWNLOADS
THE CRADLE is featured in the May 3 Twin Cities Live What to Read Next television segment. Please use the sign and shelf-talker PDFs below to print promo materials for store displays.
SIGN FOR MAY 3 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)
SHELF-TALKERS FOR MAY 3 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)
Note: The shelf-talkers need to be printed on card stock and cut apart along crop marks. Each book has its own shelf-talker, which is double so that it can be used either on the shelf under the book, or as a slip card standing up from the top of the book like a large bookmark.
- Full-color sign/flyer (PDF)
- Full-color shelf-talker (PDF)
- Reading Group Guide (PDF)
- Author photo (JPG)
- Book cover photo (JPG)
- Midwest Connections rebate form for THE CRADLE (PDF)
– now available! - Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Chicago Tribune
“Somerville‘s surprisingly tender novel retains the elegant economy and sense of mystery that distinguished the short stories in his 2006 collection, Trouble. The person standing at Renee’s door is not whom you might expect, and the letter handed to her voices fascinating ambivalence, not sentimental absolution. We don’t know everything that has occurred in the 11-year gap between the separate odysseys of mother and son; those details are as unnecessary as the cradle that Marissa wanted so much proved to be. What matters are Somerville’s characters, rendered with such warm appreciation of their complexity and resilience that, although he declines to predict their future, we have every reason to hope they will continue making slow, tentative progress toward healing the wounds of the past.”The New York Times – Dean Bakopoulos
“One gets the sense that somewhere, near Patrick Somerville’s writing desk, hundreds of unpublished pages of his first novel, THE CRADLE, litter the floor. The scope of the story indicates that many hours of imaginative sweat went into the production of this lean, moving tale. Happily, THE CRADLE emerges swift and cinematic, an epic story told in a series of artfully curated, wonderfully rendered scenes.”
Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know-does not want to know-where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline’s sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner.
However, as Matt tries to track down his wife’s mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality. This mysterious life only grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline’s trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will change Marissa’s life forever, and he faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He has taught creative writing and English at Cornell, Northwestern University, Auburn State Correctional Facility, and The Graham School in Chicago.
His first book of stories, TROUBLE, was published in September of 2006 (Vintage) and named 2006′s Best Book by a Chicago Author by Time Out Chicago, and his first novel, THE CRADLE, was published by Little, Brown in March of 2009. His writing has appeared in One Story, Epoch, GQ, Esquire, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Patrick was selected as the winner of the 2009 21st Century Award, given annually by the Chicago Public Library.
He lives with his wife in Chicago, and is currently the Blattner Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University.
