The Manning Girl by Catherine Browder

The Manning Girl by Catherine Browder

"The novel is a quiet but strong tour de force."~Marly Swick, author of Evening News: A Novel

1992. Tyler Manning-- high school teacher, part-time farmer, bachelor of 38--is planning his first day of summer vacation when a strange car approaches his Kansas farmhouse. By the time the battered Ford departs, Tyler is holding a three-week-old infant. The baby's father is his estranged brother. Woven throughout the narrative of May Manning's upbringing--assisted by long-time neighbors and school colleagues--is the parallel story of Tyler and his younger brother, the charming but deceitful Mickey Manning. The possibility of Mickey's return haunts Tyler throughout May's childhood. When Mickey does reappear, he brings unexpected danger into their lives. The Manning Girlreimagines George Eliot's 1860 fable, Silas Marner, and places it in a contemporary Midwestern frame, following the girl and her uncle/father from May's unexpected arrival to her 21st year. The Manning Girlexplores, with tenderness and humor, the unique situation of a single father, supported by a surprising community.

Catherine Browder's most recent book, Resurrection City, a story cycle about the Great East Japan Disaster of 2011, received the Spokane Prize and is forthcoming from Willow Springs Books. She is the author of three previous story collections, a Ploughshares Solo, numerous award-winning and anthologized stories, and produced plays. An NEA and the Missouri Arts Council fiction fellow, The Manning Girl is her first novel. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri.