Peeking Between the Pages

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Guest Post with Christina Schwarz, author of The Edge of the Earth & Giveaway (US only)

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Today I’m pleased to welcome Christina Schwarz, author of The Edge of the Earth to the blog!  Christina is the author of the bestselling Drowning Ruth that had been an Oprah Book Club Pick.  Her newest novel The Edge of the Earth was released on April 2 and I’m actually just listening to it and it is a fantastic tale that I’m really enjoying.  I have always had a fascination with lighthouses and what life must be like living within such isolation so I was automatically drawn to this novel both by its cover and description.  I’m more than half way through listening to it now and it’s difficult to stop as I really want to know what life is going to bring the main character.  You can see my review next Wednesday but in the meantime I’ve got Christina here with a lovely guest post for you all to enjoy and be sure to enter for your chance to win a copy at the end of the post!

 

The Edge of the Earth feels to me like a return to Drowning Ruth in that it’s set in the past and has a somewhat Gothic feel. Immediately after Drowning Ruth, I felt I’d exhausted my store of words and my supply of the type of scenes that would convey that atmosphere of the past. I had to write a comedy and then a contemporary relationship novel, in part simply to refresh myself. But over those years, the well that contains my excitement in the past and my attraction to people who harbor dark secrets there refilled.

When I’m in the process of choosing the subject for a novel, my first consideration is to find an idea that will sustain me for the two years or more that I know it’ll take me to write a book. I have to feel that the dream I’m entering is so fascinating and full of surprising possibilities that I won’t get tired of thinking about it. For me, the past easily provides that sort endless interest, because you can never know for sure what happened or why.

I picked the end of the nineteenth century specifically, because I wanted a time when the lighthouse at which most of the book is set would be particularly isolated, when the only contact with the outside world would have to come from the sea, and when my characters would have to wait many months even for a letter. I also wanted the freedom of a time when a person without an extremely specialized education could be convinced that he might make a great scientific discovery just by observing and thinking about the world around him. I lucked out in that this also turned out to be a time in which women were beginning to think that perhaps they need not be entirely dependent on men. In fact, that they might require something other than a husband and children to fulfill themselves. This is the period in which Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, stories that, like mine, explore what happens when a woman feels powerfully that she can’t fit into the form society prescribed by society. Certainly society’s bounds have changed since the end of the nineteenth century, but the notion of having to buck expectations to remain true to oneself is timeless.

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About The Edge of the Earth (from Simon & Schuster)

In 1898, a woman forsakes the comfort of home and family for a love that takes her to a remote lighthouse on the wild coast of California. What she finds at the edge of the earth, hidden between the sea and the fog, will change her life irrevocably.

Trudy, who can argue Kant over dinner and play a respectable portion of Mozart’s Serenade in G major, has been raised to marry her childhood friend and assume a life of bourgeois comfort in Milwaukee. She knows she should be pleased, but she’s restless instead, yearning for something she lacks even the vocabulary to articulate. When she falls in love with enigmatic and ambitious Oskar, she believes she’s found her escape from the banality of her preordained life.

But escape turns out to be more fraught than Trudy had imagined. Alienated from family and friends, the couple moves across the country to take a job at a lighthouse at Point Lucia, California—an unnervingly isolated outcropping, trapped between the ocean and hundreds of miles of inaccessible wilderness. There they meet the light station’s only inhabitants—the formidable and guarded Crawleys. In this unfamiliar place, Trudy will find that nothing is as she might have predicted, especially after she discovers what hides among the rocks.

Gorgeously detailed, swiftly paced, and anchored in the dramatic geography of the remote and eternally mesmerizing Big Sur, The Edge of the Earth is a magical story of secrets and self-transformation, ruses and rebirths. Christina Schwarz, celebrated for her rich evocation of place and vivid, unpredictable characters, has spun another haunting and unforgettable tale.

Reading Group Guide
Buy at: Simon & Schuster, Amazon, Amazon Canada, B&N, and IndieBound

 

About Christina Schwarz (from Simon & Schuster)

Christina Schwarz is the author of three previous novels, including Oprah Book Club pick Drowning Ruth. Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, she lives in Southern California.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US only)

I have one copy of The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz to share with my US readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries follow my blog.  If you do just let me know and I’ll pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • Tweet, like on Facebook, or Blog this giveaway for 3 entries.

This giveaway is open to US residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, April 27/13.  Good luck!

 

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Comments

  2. I can’t imagine being cut off from everyone and everything I know. This sounds like an intense read, please count me in!

    jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net

  5. Sounds like a good atmospheric read. Please enter me. And I follow you on Google Reader. Thanks.

  8. This sounds really good! I love historical fiction but haven’t read a book set during this time/setting. Thanks for the chance to win a copy!

  13. Sounds like a wonderful book and would of to read
    I follow the author on Good reads
    Did post on my facebook page

  15. I agree with you. Lighthouses have a mysteries attraction. Can’t wait to read. I follow you via email.

  16. When I first read about this book, it peeked my interest for many reasons. The idea of a woman being strong enough to go for adventure in her life rather than settle for security was rare during that time period. I also love lighthouses and have read several books about the lives of people who live in them. While there are many quiet, almost boring, days, there are also those times when excitement reigns in case of a storm or shipwreck. “The Edge of the Earth” has truly grabbed me especially with the mysterious mention of The Crawleys and “what hides among the rocks.” Wow! I’m adding this novel to my Wish List right now and I thank you for sharing!

    Connie Fischer
    conniecape@aol.com

    I follow via email and will tweet and share on Facebook.

  18. I would love to read this book. While Drowning Ruth was a tough book to read, it was so well written. I would love to read The Edge of the Earth. I follow via email and GFC.

  20. I really like the sound of this one, and you know the secret thing intrigues me as well, as you know it would. Like one of the above commenter said, the isolation of living in a lighthouse during this time intrigues me. I’ve never read Drowning Ruth, but it sounds like this one is one that I need to read. Great guest post today! Please enter me!!

    zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net

  25. This looks like a fascinating book. 1898 would be an interesting time for a woman living alone in a lighthouse. Thanks for the giveaway.

  27. I love historical novels, 1898 is a good time period. It is hard to imagine being on a lighthouse now, I can’t imagine what it was like then.
    I follow with email
    I tweeted
    Guest Post with Christina Schwarz, author of The Edge of the Earth & Giveaway (US only)

  28. This book sounds very interesting and the author is new to me.

    I follow the blog and “Like” on Facebook

  29. Think i need to check this book out see if I think one of my daughters would like it. She is fascinated with LightHouses. I’ve always wondered how one could be to themselves for so long. Please enter me to win this book. This author is new to me. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com

  33. I LOVED Drowning Ruth and am excited to read her new book.

    I am a GFC follower (Lara Frame)

    lafra86 at gmail dot com

    Thanks for the giveaway!

  34. That is one beautifully designed cover. I’ve seen this book around and actually entered to win it on another site as well. It looks so interesting to me!
    I follow this blog via email: mestith at gmail dot com
    I liked this post on FB: Meghan Stith

    mestith at gmail dot com

  35. This story sounds like a great late long night read. Thanks for the giveaway. I’m a follower.
    nanze55(at)hotmail(dot)com

  36. I love historical fiction and I am fascinated by lighthouses. This sounds like a winner to me! I follow by email.

  38. This novel sounds fascinating to me. Living in a lighthouse near Big Sur at the turn of the century, count me in! thanks

  39. In recent months I’ve read a couple of books with a lighthouse being central to the plot. I so enjoyed them and would love to read another one. Thanks for the giveaway.

    I follow through Google Reader.

    lcbrower40(at)gmail(dot)com

  40. This sounds like a great read! Thanks for the giveaway –
    PMNSL95 at triad dot rr dot com

  44. This book sounds fascinating! Added to my TBR and WL. Thanks for letting us know about this book.

  46. Sounds like a very interesting story. I like the lighthouse setting, and I’d love to find out the secrets that Trudy discovers. Please enter me. Thanks!

    ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net

  52. I’d love to get my hands on this. Always looking for new and interesting things for my students to read!

    @Mr_Podo

  55. Soooooo excited about this book. I can’t wait to read it! Thank you, thank you for the chance to win a copy. 🙂 It won’t be long until I’ll be able to sit out on the front porch with the ceiling fans going and my nose stuck in a good book. This one would fit the bill beautifully. 🙂

    I follow your blog by GFC (Beverly S.) and I tweeted about your giveaway (https://twitter.com/DesignerBev/status/325264426452258817). So drop my name in the hat two more times. Wink. 🙂