Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead

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Book name:	Astonish Me (2024)
Category:	Ambition
Author:	Maggie Shipstead
Language:	English
Publication data:	Jan. 1, 2014, midnight

The novel unfolds the intricate life of Joan, a professional ballet dancer who helps a Soviet ballet star defect to the West in the 1970s, an act that reverberates through her life. As Joan transitions away from her career and into motherhood in suburban California, her son Harry uncovers her past secrets while pursuing his own ballet career. The narrative weaves through the competitive world of professional ballet, exploring themes of sacrifice, obsession, the legacies we inherit, and the decisions that shape our destinies, all while capturing the demanding and ephemeral art of dance. The 5642nd greatest book of all time

About the author

Maggie Shipstead

2 books

Maggie Shipstead is the New York Times-bestselling author of the novels Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements, winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. A third novel, Great Circle, will be published in May 2021. She is a graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, and the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Her writing has appeared in many places, including the New York Ti… Read more