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Start giftingThe Red Car
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Learn moreA wildly imaginative, rebellious, and tender tale of independence from the critically acclaimed author of Bad Marie.
With each new novel, Marcy Dermansky deploys her “brainy, emotionally sophisticated” (New York Times) prose to greater and greater heights, and The Red Car is no exception.
Leah is living in Queens with a possessive husband she doesn’t love and a long list of unfulfilled ambitions, when she’s jolted from a thick ennui by a call from the past. Her beloved former boss and friend, Judy, has died in a car accident and left Leah her most prized possession and, as it turns out, the instrument of Judy’s death: a red sports car.
Judy was the mentor Leah never expected. She encouraged Leah’s dreams, analyzed her love life, and eased her into adulthood over long lunches away from the office. Facing the jarring disconnect between the life she expected and the one she is now actually living, Leah takes off for San Francisco to claim Judy’s car. In sprawling days defined by sex, sorrow, and unexpected delight, Leah revisits past lives and loves in search of a self she abandoned long ago. Piercing through Leah’s surreal haze is the enigmatic voice of Judy, as sharp as ever, providing wry commentary on Leah’s every move.
Following her “irresistible” (Time) and “wicked” (Slate) novel Bad Marie, Dermansky evokes yet another edgy, capricious, and beautifully haunting heroine―one whose search for realization is as wonderfully unpredictable and hypnotic as the twists and turns of the Pacific Coast Highway. Tautly wound, transgressive, and mordantly funny, The Red Car is an incisive exploration of one woman’s unusual route to self-discovery.
Marcy Dermansky is the author of the novels The Red Car, Bad Marie, and Twins. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Five Chapters, the Indiana Review, and elsewhere. She lives in New Jersey with her daughter.
Soneela Nankani is an award-winning narrator with over three hundred titles in many different genres including Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi, and Nonfiction. She has garnered sixteen Earphones Awards, nominations for Audie and SOVAS awards, and was recently awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. Her audiobooks have been featured in Best Audiobooks lists by AudioFile magazine and the Washington Post, among others. In her spare time, she loves to read (yes, really), learn languages, try new recipes, and travel. She lives in the DC area with her husband and two mischievous daughters.
Reviews
“If you want to fall in love with a book almost at first sight (i.e. paragraph four)…read Marcy Dermansky’s The Red Car.”
“A dry, delightful fairy tale for grown-ups.”
“Sharp and fiery…The novel’s furious action keeps the pages snapping by, but each incident, at times each sentence, is bubbling with equally furious ideas.”
“A swift and magical read…Spare, funny, and deftly observant of what happens when our repressed emotions reach a violent precipice.”
“[The Red Car] is on one level, a fairy tale complete with fairy godmother, and on another, a whispered goad to the reader: Live the life you really want.”
“The Red Car is like a film so mesmerizing that you want to get another box of popcorn and see it again.”
“Combines dreamlike logic with dark humor, wry observation, and gritty feminism.”
“Sleek and polished…Dermansky’s short, punchy chapters keep the tightly written novel moving smoothly along, and flashbacks to her past add depth without slowing momentum.”
“Explores the many unwise decisions of her heroine, offering no solutions but encouraging us to hope that things will get better. Readers won’t be able to put this one down.”
“An eerie, psychologically astute tale.”
“Narrator Soneela Nankani portrays Leah as disconnected from the real world, floating from moment to moment with passive confusion. Her performance highlights Leah’s denial of her failing marriage and faltering career. In contrast, Judy, in flashbacks and in Leah’s memory, speaks in a confident, throaty contralto…Minimal distinctions in the voices of secondary characters reflect Leah’s self-centered experience of the world and highlight her slowly developing ability to take control of her life.”
“The Red Car is a wonder. Moving, mysterious, and filled with dark, sly humor, it rustles under your skin and stays there. By the time I reached its shimmering final pages, I wanted to go right back to the beginning and start again.”
“A new book by the inimitable Marcy Dermansky is worth cheering for. The Red Car is droll, unflinching, and mysterious, a feat of efficient storytelling. I could not put it down. This novel mesmerized me.”
“Dermansky’s vision is sharp and clear, pushing her beautifully realized protagonist, Leah, into the rapids on a journey of self-discovery…A tremendously moving story that feels true and important.”
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