The House Uptown is an emotional coming-of-age novel about a young girl who goes to live with her eccentric grandmother in New Orleans after the death of her mother.
After the sudden death of her mother, Ava finds herself headed cross-country to live with the only relative she has left. But Lane, her grandmother, doesn't seem to have much room in her heart for a teenage girl, barely acknowledging Ava between obsessive painting sessions. The only other person who comes around is Lane's assistant, Oliver, who's dealing with issues of his own. As the summer goes on, Ava begins to get a sense that something is very wrong in her grandmother's house. Why was Lane estranged from Ava's mother, and is she now losing her mind? Could the danger lie with Oliver? Or, is there something darker in their past, something which could come back to destroy them all?
"Ginsburg's brilliance is on full display in The House Uptown. By giving us these layered, complicated characters, all suffering from previous traumas, Ginsburg reveals how the past keeps reaching toward us, and what we'll do to stay out of its reach." KEVIN WILSON, author of Nothing to See Here.
Longlisted for The John Creasey Dagger
Twenty-two-year-old Charlotte Ford reconnects with Danielle, her best friend from high school, a few days before Danielle is found bludgeoned to death in a motel room. In the wake of the murder, Charlotte's life unravels and she descends into the city's underbelly, where she meets the strippers, pornographers and drug dealers who surrounded Danielle in the years they were estranged. Ginsburg's Houston is part of a lesser known south, where the urban and rural collide gracelessly. In this shadowy world, culpability and sympathy blur in a debut novel which thrillingly brings its three female protagonists to the fore. Scary, funny and almost unbearably sad, Sunset City is written with rare grace and empathy holding you transfixed, praying for some kind of escape for Charlotte.
"Entrances." MEGAN ABBOTT
"Sexy, boozy, poignant and funny." GUARDIAN
Twenty-two-year-old Charlotte Ford reconnects with Danielle, her best friend from high school, a few days before Danielle is found bludgeoned to death in a motel room. In the wake of the murder, Charlotte's life unravels and she descends into the city's underbelly, where she meets the strippers, pornographers, and drug dealers who surrounded Danielle in the years they were estranged.
Ginsburg's Houston is part of a lesser known south, where the urban and rural collide gracelessly. In this shadowy world, culpability and sympathy blur in a debut novel which thrillingly brings its three female protagonists to the fore.
Scary, funny, and almost unbearably sad, Sunset City is written with rare grace and empathy holding you transfixed, praying for some kind of escape for Charlotte.
