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by Becky Mandelbaum
From the winner of the 2016 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction comes a tender and funny debut novel, set over one emotionally charged weekend at an animal sanctuary in western Kansas, where maternal, romantic, and community bonds are tested in the wake of an estranged daughter's homecoming.
The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals is in trouble.
It's late 2016 when Ariel discovers that her mother Mona's animal sanctuary in Western Kansas has not only been the target of anti-Semitic hate crimes—but that it's also for sale, due to hidden financial ruin. Ariel, living a new life in progressive Lawrence, and estranged from her mother for six long years, knows she has to return to her childhood home—especially since her own past may have played a role in the attack on the sanctuary. Ariel expects tension, maybe even fury, but she doesn't anticipate that her first love, a ranch hand named Gideon, will still be working at the Bright Side.
Back in Lawrence, Ariel's charming but hapless fiancé, Dex, grows paranoid about her sudden departure. After uncovering Mona's address, he sets out to confront Ariel, but instead finds her grappling with the life she's abandoned. Amid the reparations with her mother, it's clear that Ariel is questioning the meaning of her life in Lawrence, and whether she belongs with Dex or with someone else, somewhere else.
Acclaimed writer Pam Houston says that "Mandelbaum is wise beyond her years and twice as talented," and The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals poignantly explores the unique love and tension between mothers and daughters, and humans and animals alike. Perceptive and funny, moving and eloquent, and ultimately buoyant, Mandelbaum offers a panoramic view of family and forgiveness, and of the meaning of home. Her debut reminds us that love provides refuge, and underscores our similarities as human beings, no matter how alone or far apart we may feel.
"Mandelbaum's heartwarming and sharp-witted debut features an estranged mother and daughter better at connecting with injured and abandoned animals than with each other...In Mandelbaum's bighearted, emotionally intelligent tale, the love for animals proves irresistible." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Warm-hearted...[A] tale of misplaced feelings and misunderstood souls that is chiefly characterized by home, irresistible animals, and the forgiving of old rifts. Mothers and daughters reunite, and dogs seal the deal, in a feel-good charmer." - Kirkus Reviews
"With heart, precision, and a fresh, resilient humor, The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals reveals the complicated connections between people and animals alike...Mandelbaum is wise beyond her years and twice as talented." - Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted and Cowboys Are My Weakness
"A story of reconciliation and forgiveness (and so many animals!) in the assured hand of a writer who understands that the hardest journeys we undertake are the ones in search of home." - Steven Rowley, bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor
This information about The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Becky Mandelbaum is the author of Bad Kansas, winner of the 2016 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and the 2018 High Plains Book Award for First Book. Her work has appeared in One Story, the Sun, the Missouri Review, the Georgia Review, Electric Literature, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and has been featured on Medium. She has received fellowships from Writing by Writers, a residency from The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and has taught at Seattle's Hugo House. Originally from Kansas, she currently lives in Washington State. The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals is her first novel.
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