Book Blogger Appreciation Week - Giveaway Number Two from Book Club Girl

One of the wonderful authors I was able to visit with at Sunday's Brooklyn Book Festival was Alice Mattison, author of The Book Borrower and the new novel, Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn. In her newest book, Mattison tells the story of Constance Tepper.

One quiet spring day in 1989, Constance Tepper arrives from Philadelphia to watch over her mother's Brooklyn apartment and her orange cat. Con's mother, Gert, has left town to visit her old friend Marlene Silverman in Rochester. Marlene has always seemed alluring and powerful to Con, and ever since Con was a little girl, the long-standing bond between Gert and Marlene has piqued her curiosity. Now she finds herself wondering again what keeps them together.

Con's week in Brooklyn will take a surprising turn when she wakes to find that someone has entered her mother's apartment and her own purse is missing. Stranded, with no money, she begins to phone family and friends. By the end of that week, she will experience a series of troubling discoveries about her marriage, her job, and her family's history, and much of her life will be changed forever.

In the fall of 2003, now living in Brooklyn and working as a lawyer, Con has almost forgotten that strange and shattering week. But a series of unsettling reminders and surprising discoveries—including traces of a lost elevated train line through Brooklyn—will lead to grief, love, and more questions. At last, a confrontation between Marlene and Con's daughter will unravel some of the mysteries of the past.

In honor of my recent foray to Brooklyn and the book's official on-sale date, today's giveaway is the Book Club Girl mousepad plus a copy of Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn. All you have to do is tell me about a book you've read where the location becomes a character itself. Blog about this contest somewhere else and post the link and you'll get two entries into the drawing. Check out the reading group guide to NIQFIB here and see if you can catch Alice on her tour here.

Comments

[Yasmin]

Great question...I had to put on my thinking cap for this one...but finally decided that my book pick would be Passport Diaries by Tamara Gregory. I blogged about it here...stop by:
http://www.apooobooks.com/2008/09/16/location-character/

[Icedream]

The first book that came to mind was Farley Mowat's book "Never Cry Wolf". Even though it was an autobiography I became so engrossed with the descriptions of the Canadian Arctic that I felt it definately became a character in itself.
I also blogged about this contest at: http://readinginappalachia.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html

[Icedream]

The first book that came to mind was Farley Mowat's book "Never Cry Wolf". Even though it was an autobiography I became so engrossed with the descriptions of the Canadian Arctic that I felt it definately became a character in itself.
I also blogged about this contest at: http://readinginappalachia.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html

[Melissa]

I am currently reading The Manny and the city of New York definately becomes like another character in this novel. One that is fast, cultured, and privilaged. I just can't imagine the main character having the same life experience in another city!

[Julie P.]

Good question. I recently read THE LOST DIARY OF DON JUAN. The author really did an amazing job of describing Spain. The country took on its own personality.

I also read THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON. I loved how the author created this old house, and it really came to life!

[Anne]

Ulysses by James Joyce. One day in Dublin. There are even travel tours in Ireland to go to all the same places.

[Heidi]

Margaret Drabble's 'Red Queen.' An academic searches for herself while researching the story of an ancient Korean queen. Drabble juxtaposes modern and ancient Korea skillfully; as you read you want to see 'both' countries.

[Susan]

I have actually two books that I can think of One Thousand Splendid Suns.

[Serena (Savvy Verse & Wit)]

The only book I can think of in which the city became another character is San Francisco in Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore. You are immediately thrust into the city, which is steeped in culture, and it takes on a life of its own. It's like Moore has an in-depth knowledge of this city.

[Julie E.]

I felt like the Los Angeles setting was a character in Janet Fitch's "White Oleander." The geographical and economic diversity of the area meant that the main character could go from foster home to foster home and experience completely different circumstances, and yet still be close to places that reminded her of her life with her mother. A great use of setting that really set the book apart from other novels with similar themes!

[Julie E.]

Sorry to post again, but Serena's post reminded me that San Francisco is definitely a character in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books, which I love. :)

[Dawn]

Kabul, Afghanistan strikes me as a character in *The Kite Runner* (Khaled Hosseini). The descriptions of the city are alive and vibrant, then "fall ill" as the war takes hold.

[Cynthia]

I just read thru all of the comments and thought "oh YEAH! That one! No wait! THAT one!!" - The mention of Farley Mowat brought to mind Bradford Angier in his book "We Like It Wild" where he and his wife homesteaded WAY up in the Canadian wilds where the temperature dropped "two inches below zero". I read it as a child, a teen and an adult and then made my husband read it. It is our dream to mimic what Brad and Vera and their Irish Wolfhound "Bookman" did - only maybe not in such a harsh environment - we're softies!!

[S. Krishna]

Definitely The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt - Venice is definitely a character in that book!

[Adayla S.]

That's a hard one! The closest I would get is: The Book of Ember series.

[Ti]

For me, it wasn't a city per se but an island. In Mister Pip, the island of Bougainville, which is considered part of Papua New Guinea, took on a life of its own and was a central character to the plot.

[Michelle B]

In the Lace Reader I could smell the ocean air and feel the spray of the ocean on my face on the trips by boat to the island.

[softdrink]

Bread Alone...I fell in love with Seattle.

[alissa]

A book that was memorable and represented a character was Isabel's Daughter by Judith Ryan Hendricks.

[melanie]

I just read The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch. The house/sea/stones/cliffs had the power of a character amongst the very foolish human ones.

Wonderful question!