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Cathy Marie Buchanan Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Cathy Marie Buchanan
Photo: Ania Szado

Cathy Marie Buchanan

Cathy Marie Buchanan Biography

New York Times bestseller and book club favorite Cathy Marie Buchanan is the author of three novels. Her most recent, Daughter of Black Lake, was chosen as Best Fiction for Fall by Entertainment Weekly and Parade magazine. Her previous novel, The Painted Girls, was a New York Times bestseller, a #1 national bestseller in Canada, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, Good Housekeeping and Goodreads. Her debut novel, The Day the Falls Stood Still, was a New York Times bestseller, a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection and a Canada Reads Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade. Her work has been translated into nine languages.

Buchanan holds a BSc (Honours Biochemistry) and an MBA from Western University, and recently became a certified yoga instructor. She lives in Toronto.

From the author's website July 2022

Cathy Marie Buchanan's website

This bio was last updated on 07/13/2022. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Interview

Ballet connects the sisters in The Painted Girls in powerful ways. Author Cathy Marie Buchanan shares her insights into the story set during France's Belle Epoque.

  1. Did you always intend The Painted Girls as a tribute to sisterhood?
    I once heard the great Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod comment he did not so much buy into the old adage "write what you know" as some broader notion of writing about one's obsessions. I'd take it a step further and suggest that, deliberate or not, a writer's preoccupations find their way onto the page. When I first put pen to paper, my intention was to set down the story of the model for Degas's beloved sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. But soon enough her sister was demanding equal time. I think now it was inevitable that my story would hold up a magnifying lens to the mysteries of sisterhood— the rivalry, the love. With three sisters of my own—each deeply loved by me despite alarming teenage rows—I have often found my mind lingering, wondering, stuck. What is it that provokes rivalry among sisters? And why is it so many of us the world over find solace in the strong arms of the sisters we love, that we so readily open our own? It was quite unintentional—though no accident—that I found myself pondering these questions as I imagined the story of Marie and Antoinette.
  2. Were you a dancer?
    I studied classical ballet...

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Books by this Author

Books by Cathy Marie Buchanan at BookBrowse
The Painted Girls jacket The Day the Falls Stood Still jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Cathy Marie Buchanan but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern languages (with honors) in ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Painted Girls

    Try:
    Arthur & George
    by Julian Barnes

  • Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin

    Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children's Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator's Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Painted Girls

    Try:
    The Aviator's Wife
    by Melanie Benjamin

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