Spinning at the Edges

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Spinning at the Edges,

From the author of the acclaimed As Close to Us as Breathing, a captivating novel steeped in history, revealing the bonds of family and community, and the healing powers hidden inside broken hearts.

For much of her adult life Ruth Pearl has lived in the small New England town of Wells, Connecticut, on the shore of Lake Topaqua. Decades back, when she was fourteen, she and her parents fled German-occupied Amsterdam after the murder of her beloved older sister Sophia, and in the wake of such loss, Ruth has long taken comfort in the natural beauty of her lake view.

But in the winter of 2000, Ruth’s neighbor builds an addition to his home that blocks Ruth’s view, a disruption of her peace that sparks fear that her tumultuous past is happening again.

Together, Ruth and Arthur save Ian Lima, a despairing sixteen-year-old, and over the days to come, as Ruth and Arthur help Ian heal, they find themselves healing too. Soon enough, this turn of events begins to impact Ruth’s daughter, Ian’s mother, and even Arthur’s love interest.

In Spinning at the Edges, Elizabeth Poliner, a masterful storyteller, seamlessly interweaves the lives of a rich cast of characters living in two historical time periods—America 2000, marked by a controversial presidential election, and Netherlands 1941, marked by rising fascism—to tell an unforgettable story about how the past haunts the present, how sharing pain heals, and how love—and even democracy—are fragile concepts in a changing, spinning world.

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From the Jacket

“Book after captivating book, Elizabeth Poliner has been building an exceptional body of work full of characters who rise up from her pages and perform exquisite, literary magic. Spinning at the Edges is, simply, a marvel, because Poliner knows a story of lasting quality needs no flashing neon lights but only people who get up from their beds and go on with lives both simple and complex. Poliner does this with uncommon skill whether her people are fleeing World War II Amsterdam or skating in the dark on a Connecticut lake or walking the streets of Washington, D.C. This is a writer incapable of disappointing a reader.”

Edward P. Jones

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World

“Elizabeth Poliner’s Spinning at the Edges cracks the surface of the present to expose the underlying turbulence of the silenced past. In pages resonant with the heartbreak of history, she lets us glimpse the ways our lives can collide, and the unexpected gifts these collisions can give.”

Rachel Kadish

Author of The Weight of Ink

“Spinning at the Edges is an absorbing story of entangled lives, a meditation on grief and justice, the weight of the past, and the dizzying uncertainties of the future. Without ever losing sight of the humanity of her characters, Elizabeth Poliner depicts, with wisdom and grace, the common challenge we all face to find meaning in a whirling world.”

Alice McDermott

National Book Award winner, author of Absolution

Reading Group Guide

For book clubs, here’s a Reading Group Guide with questions:

Spinning at the Edges