Miss Emily

Starred review from June 22, 2015
O'Connor brings one of America's most beloved poets to life in this novel, which enters into the mind of Emily Dickinson as she retreats into a reclusive life amongst her parents and sister at their estate, the Homestead in Amherst, Mass., in the 1860s. O'Connor has conjured a fictional confidant for Emily in Ada Concannon, a headstrong 18-year-old Irish maid, who is hired by the Dickinson family on the day she arrives in town. The story unfolds as chapters alternate between first-person accounts by Emily and Ada. Emily grapples with her introversion and her chosen escape of writing: "The rustling passions of life are contained more truly for me in the words of poetry than in the everyday world." Ada greets stablehand Daniel Byrne, "trying to be a little formal, but something about him makes my mouth twitch and beam"âand just like that, a courtship begins. O'Connor is a gifted writer; not only does she bring a believable sense of poetry (clay is "deathly cool around my fingers") and self-assurance to Emily, she is also capable of conveying complex feeling succinctly, a talent shared by her historical heroine. The fascinating story also touches on issues of class and race. One wishes O'Connor would have done more to bring out Emily's interior life, but the reader is nonetheless pulled into the story. This novel has the possibility of being a book club juggernaut. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher and Company.

July 1, 2015

Ada Concannon is 17 when she leaves Dublin for Amherst, MA. Relatives in this conservative New England town arrange employment for Ada as a domestic for a respectable local family, the Dickinsons. While the reserved Dickinsons tolerate Ada's spirited informality, the eccentric Emily takes a shine to the younger Irish girl, and the two forge a bond over a shared love of nature and baking that eases Ada's loneliness and the spinster's heartache for her beloved sister-in-law, Susan. Ada catches the eye of Daniel Byrne, another Irish immigrant respected for his kindness and industry. She is also hounded by Byrne's nemesis, the vile Patrick Crohan, whose violent predations threaten to destroy Ada and Daniel's attachment. Though increasingly reclusive and committed to her singular routines, such as gardening and writing at night, Emily is moved to defy her family as well as her own nature to aid and ultimately redeem Ada in the young woman's time of need. VERDICT O'Connor's first novel published here (but her third novel, with previous works appearing under the name Nuala Ni Chonchuir) beautifully and convincingly evokes the startling, luminous world captured in Dickinson's poems in the alternating voices of Emily and Ada, who share a passionate nature at odds with proper Amherst society.--John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
As William Nicholson did in Amherst (2015), Irish writer Nuala O'Connor breathes new life into reclusive poet Emily Dickinson in her mesmerizing U.S. debut. Like one of Dickinson's poems, the deceptively simple narrative packs a powerful punch. When Irish immigrant Ada Concannon joins the eccentric Dickinson household as a maid, she and Emily develop a relationship that bridges the age, educational, and social divides that already exist between them. Narrated in alternating chapters by Ada and Emily, the dual perspectives add an Upstairs, Downstairs depth to the novel. Though Emily is deep in the throes of her white phase, seldom leaving the grounds of her family's beloved homestead in Amherst, she summons up her courage to venture outside of her home and the safe confines of her inner mind on behalf of Ada when violent tragedy strikes. Expect robust demand as Emily Dickinson always intrigues, and rumor has it that the film rights have recently been acquired.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)