{"title":"Marcia Butler","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"skin-above-my-knee-book-marcia-butler-9780316392280","title":"The Skin Above My Knee","description":"Music was everything for Marcia Butler. Growing up in an emotionally desolate home with an abusive father and a distant mother, she devoted herself to the discipline and rigor of the oboe, and quickly became a young prodigy on the rise in New York City's competitive music scene.   But haunted by troubling childhood memories while balancing the challenges of a busy life as a working musician, Marcia succumbed to dangerous men, drugs and self-destruction. In her darkest moments, she asked the hardest question of all: Could music truly save her life?  A memoir of startling honesty and subtle, profound beauty, The Skin Above My Knee is the story of a woman finding strength in her creative gifts and artistic destiny. Filled with vivid portraits of 1970's New York City, and fascinating insights into the intensity and precision necessary for a career in professional music, this is more than a narrative of a brilliant musician struggling to make it big in the big city. It is the story of a survivor.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49536529957137,"sku":"GOR009846723","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51322219987217,"sku":"CIN0316392286VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0316392286.jpg?v=1773315157"},{"product_id":"oslo-maine-book-marcia-butler-9781771682312","title":"Oslo, Maine","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"This book will break your heart and heal it.\"\u003c\/b\u003e - E.J. Levy, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Cape Doctor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A pregnant moose walks into a rural Maine town called Oslo, looking for food and a place to deliver her calf. Just as when strangers run into each other on the street, the movement of the moose determines the fate of three families in the town as they grapple with trauma, marriage, ambition, and their fraught relationship with the natural world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Meet Pierre Roy, a brilliant twelve-year-old, who loses his memory in an accident. Then Claude Roy, Pierre's blustery and proud fourth-generation Maine father who cannot, or will not, acknowledge the too-real and frightening fact of his son's injury. And his wife, Celine, a once-upon-a-time traditional housewife and mother who descends into pills as a way of coping.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Enter Sandra and Jim Kimbrough, musicians and recent Maine transplants who scrape together a meager living as performers while shoring up the loose ends by attempting to live off the grid.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Finally, the wealthy widow \"from away,\" Edna Sibley, whose dependent adult grandson is addicted to 1980's Family Feud episodes.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Their disparate backgrounds and views on life make for, at times, uneasy neighbors. But when Sandra begins to teach Pierre the violin, forces beyond their control converge. The boy discovers that through sound he can enter a world without pain from the past nor worry for the future. He becomes a preadolescent existentialist and invents an unconventional method to come to terms with his memory loss, all the while attempting to protect, and then forgive, those who've failed him.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eOslo, Maine\u003c\/i\u003e is a character-driven novel exploring class and economic disparity. It inspects the strengths and limitations of seven average yet extraordinary people as they reckon with their considerable collective failure around Pierre's accident.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Alliances unravel. Long held secrets are exposed. And throughout, the ever-present moose is the linchpin that drives this richly drawn story, filled with heartbreak and hope, to its unexpected conclusion.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"(T)he flawed but deeply relatable characters in Butler's second novel ... exude an authentic sense of humanity, making this a sure-fire recommendation for Fredrik Backman fans.\"\u003c\/b\u003e --\u003ci\u003eCarol Haggas, Booklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA seductive, imaginative, and utterly unique story; an astute and compassionate foray into the intersecting lives of characters who are both ordinary and exceptional, saintly and deeply flawed.\"\u003c\/b\u003e --Karen Dionne, #1 internationally bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Wicked Sister\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49589414363409,"sku":"GOR012517207","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49917781704977,"sku":"CIN1771682310G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51334480199953,"sku":"CIN1771682310VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1771682310.jpg?v=1750897499"},{"product_id":"dear-virginia-wait-for-me-book-marcia-butler-9781771684088","title":"Dear Virginia, Wait for Me","description":"\u003cb\u003eA sensitive portrait of a vulnerable yet resilient young woman who, with the help of an inner voice and newfound friends, attempts to find her way at the turn-of-the-millennium Manhattan.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For as long as she can remember, Peppa Ryan has been guided by a benevolent voice in her head who she believes is Virginia Woolf. Though she's an exceptionally bright twenty-year-old, she suffers from crippling low self-esteem and has barely left her parents' ramshackle home in Queens, New York City.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e At the turn of the millennium, Peppa is caught between her father's wishes for her to run the family business and her mother's mental illness. In spite of these pressures, she bravely ventures out on her own to start a job at a Wall Street investment firm. But her parents continue to pull strings, insisting she date a handsome plumber in the hopes that she'll abandon her job and return to her roots. Peppa plans to immediately dismiss him, but to her surprise they discover an unlikely bond over a shared love of Virginia Woolf. With the encouragement of her kindhearted boss, his eccentric client, and the voice of Virginia, Peppa gains confidence and begins to thrive in her new life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Then, when Peppa discovers a betrayal by her family, she suffers a breakdown. And on one crisp and clear autumn morning, as she slowly recovers, Peppa finds herself on the path to reconciliation.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For those who loved \u003ci\u003eWhere'd You Go, Bernadette, The Remedy for Love,\u003c\/i\u003e or \u003ci\u003eAnd Then We Came to The End\u003c\/i\u003e, this is a sensitive coming-of-age novel of a fragile yet brilliant young woman who, like Virginia Woolf, is determined to carve her unique path in life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51630101528849,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51630101790993,"sku":"NIN9781771684088","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51630101823761,"sku":"NGR9781771684088","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52661728444689,"sku":"NLS9781771684088","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":52880245489937,"sku":"CIN1771684089LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1771684089.jpg?v=1750865751"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-marcia-butler.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}