"Cuando era pequeña pensaba en cómo matar a mi padre." Así comienza "Ellen Foster", una de las contadas obras cuya protagonista, al igual que el Huckleberry Finn de Mark Twain o la Pecola Breedlove de Toni Morrison, ha entrado por derecho propio en la cultura popular norteamericana. Ellen es una niña de once años que, haciendo gala de una inteligencia y una determinación fuera de lo común, busca su lugar en el mundo mientras todo se tambalea a su alrededor. Ambientada en un Sur en el que e...

"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy."So begins the tale of Ellen Foster, the brave and engaging heroine of Kaye Gibbons's first novel, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Wise, funny, affectionate and true, Ellen Foster is, as Walker Percy called it, "The real thing. Which is to say, a lovely, sometim...

Originally published in 1994. This work investigates seasonal fluctuations of US and British short term nominal interest rates, the dollar-sterling exchange rate and short term interest rate differentials between the US and Britain during the period 1883-1913. It finds that during the pre-World War Gold Standard seasonal movements in exchange rates did not tend to offset the seasonal fluctuations in interest rate differentials. It presents a model to explain the fluctuations and outlines t...

The thrice widowed vowess, Lady Apollonia of Aust, brought her servants with her to Glastonbury in early February, 1397, to help her widowed son and his three small children. In Glastonbury, the Lady and her party were overpowered by the dominating presence of the abbey and the extraordinary legends which defined it. While Apollonia and her household settled in her son’s home, they were unaware of the arrival of two Druids from Ireland who came to accomplish a mysterious purpose. When a br...

In late 14th century Worcester, the Lady Apollonia of Aust struggles to protect the affinity of her son, the sheriff, against undercover usury deviously directed from behind monastic walls while upper middle class sexual misconduct forces him to solve three murders.

The first signs of early spring have begun to blossom in the year l392, and the Lady Apollonia is living in the home of her third husband in the city of Gloucester. Master Robert Windemere is a wealthy wool merchant and furrier, a former bailiff of the city. Lady Apollonia is faced with the news of the death of her fourth son when his squire is finally able to return to her in fulfillment of a vow to his master. Losses in her personal life are echoed by an outbreak of major crime and murde...

The opening pages of this historical mystery novel carry the reader into the midst of a demonic storm raging on the banks of the Severn River in Gloucestershire, England, in the early autumn of the year 1400. Unknown to the household of Lady Apollonia of Aust a tidal bore has surged up the Severn Estuary leaving in its wake a pre-dawn tide of dead lepers. One decapitated body discovered in a tidal pool is revealed to be an ancient adversary of the Lady. This is the first book in the Lady A...

The Lady Apollonia of Aust, medieval sleuth and wealthy daughter of an earl, faces widowhood for the third time. She chooses to guarantee her sovereignty by vowing to become a Bride of Christ, declaring that she will live a nun’s life but remain in the world. Her household takes up residence in Cirencester. There they encounter an ongoing power struggle between the local Augustinian Abbey and the townspeople. After centuries of the abbot’s declaration of being lord of the manor, the people...

The triumphant return of the New York Times bestselling novel's orphaned heroine—" the Southern Holden Caulfield . . . the female Huck Finn" ( Bookmarks Magazine).Ellen Foster, fifteen years old, formidable, and back in North Carolina with a loving new foster mother, has written to the president of Harvard, asking for early admission. Having already crammed a lot of tragedy, adversity, and trauma into her young years, surely she's...

Kati and her younger sister, Ilonka, arrived in Canada with painful memories from the Holocaust, which took both of their parents. Their harrowing time alone in the Budapest ghetto was fresh in their minds, as were their fragile hopes to be adopted. But their lives in Toronto were far from what they expected, and full of broken promises. As the sisters navigated their new surroundings, they each grew fiercely strong and independent, while holding onto the comfort that they would be Nev...

Kaye Gibbons joins Elissa Schappell to discuss The Life All Around Me, the sequel to her novel Ellen Foster. Andrea Marcovicci reads an excerpt.

Kati and her younger sister, Ilonka, arrive in Canada with painful memories from the Holocaust, which has taken both of their parents. Their harrowing time alone in the Budapest ghetto is fresh in their minds, as are their fragile hopes to be adopted. But their lives in Toronto are far from what they expected, and full of broken promises. As the sisters navigate their new surroundings, they each grow fiercely strong and independent, while holding onto the comfort that they will be Neve...