{"product_id":"9781571311368","title":"The Shame: A Novel","description":"A “startlingly original” novel of “recursive loops through the mind of a woman who is breaking down from not making the art she absolutely must make” (Alexander Chee, \u003ci\u003eParis Review\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003cp\u003eAlma and her family live close to the land, raising chickens and sheep. While her husband works at a nearby college, she stays home with their young children, cleans, searches for secondhand goods online, and reads books by the women writers she adores. Then, one night, she abruptly leaves it all behind—speeding through the darkness, away from their Vermont homestead, bound for New York.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a series of flashbacks, Alma reveals the circumstances and choices that led to this moment: the joys and claustrophobia of their remote life; her fears and uncertainties about motherhood; the painfully awkward faculty dinners; her feelings of loneliness and failure; and her growing fascination with Celeste, a mysterious ceramicist and self-loving doppelgänger who becomes an obsession for Alma.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA fable both blistering and surreal, \u003ci\u003eThe Shame\u003c\/i\u003e is a propulsive, funny, and thought-provoking debut about a woman in isolation, whose mind—fueled by capitalism, motherhood, and the search for meaningful art—attempts to betray her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHonors for \u003ci\u003eThe Shame\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA Refinery29 Best New Book of Fall 2020\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA Literary Hub Recommended Read for August 2020\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA Bustle \"Most Anticipated Book of August 2020\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA \u003ci\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e Favorite Book of 2020, Selected by Miciah Bay Gault\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA \u003ci\u003eWhite Review\u003c\/i\u003e Recommended Read of 2020\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA \u003ci\u003eMpls.St.Paul Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e Reading Recommendation for Fall 2020\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Milkweed Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49991009665264,"sku":"9781571311368","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781571311368","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}