The Road from Belhaven

Praise

“Piercing and eloquent. . . . The prose is radiant. . . . A gem of a novel.” —The Washington Post

“Powerful and engaging. . . . Margot Livesey is no slouch when it comes to casting a mesmerizing spell with her language; one of her other indelible and pleasure-inducing trademarks is lacing her fiction with shimmers of otherworldliness. . . . Lizzie is a marvel of a character.” —Boston Globe

“Margot Livesey is an incandescent writer, generous and graceful, always imbuing her characters with astonishing humanity and grace. I love all  Livesey’s books, but The Road From Belhaven has become my new favorite; I felt so deeply for Lizzie that I worried about her fate with the same love and indignation and hope I would have for a flesh-and-blood friend of my youth. This book is a cold, clear, perfect lake.”—Lauren Groff, New York Times best-selling author of The Vaster Wilds

“Gracefully evokes the magic and mystery of the rural world and the vitality and harshness of city life.” —The New Yorker

“A master class in storytelling…. If there’s any complaint to be made about The Road from Belhaven, it’s that we don’t get to linger there longer.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“If you haven’t dived into the novels of Margot Livesey, her new The Road from Belhaven is an excellent place to start. . . . Her books vividly convey the joys and sorrows of ordinary, usually rural, life but they also leave room for the extraordinary. . . . Livesey has keen insight into the way people behave and she crafts lyrical, lucid sentences, but what’s best about her work is her understanding that magic and mystery are part of everyday life.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“This novel casts a spell. The writing here reminds me of Claire Keegan’s Foster and Alice Munro at her unsentimental best. Rich with tangible detail, The Road from Belhaven is magical as well, not least in the way it stops time for the reader.  I inhaled it in one day.”—Allegra Goodman, New York Times best-selling author of Sam

“Margot Livesey is a treasure: a writer who understands the magic and mysteries of the human soul, and brings that wisdom to novels that are both riveting and lush. The Road from Belhaven is a smart, profound, and beautiful book that draws you in and holds you tight.”—Chris Bohjalian, New York Times best-selling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch

“The Road from Belhaven is a marvel. In this radiantly beautiful novel, Margot Livesey introduces us to Lizzie Craig, an unforgettable 19th-century Scottish clairvoyant haunted by her future as much as her past. Livesey has crafted a story as thrilling as it is thoughtful, one animated by life’s fundamental question: how do we change?”—Anthony Marra, New York Times best-selling author of Mercury Pictures Presents

“Margot Livesey is a great, gifted storyteller, with a moral compass of pure gold and the necessary clear eyes to understand and love us all, with our mistakes and misunderstandings and damages. She holds the world of Belhaven Farm up to her bright, sharp vision and the light and the shadows dance for generations.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times best-selling author of In Love

“Margot Livesey’s prose is so lucid, so precise, and so understated as she goes about conjuring and sustaining the lives of her characters, that the reader hardly notices how deep a claim Lizzie Craig has laid on the heart until it is in danger of breaking on her behalf. The only thing I could think to do when I finished the book was to begin again, I didn’t want it to end.”—Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers

“Margot Livesey shines bright, as always – giving us both the beauty of the world and the roiling tumult of the souls within it. Bewitching and seductive, The Road from Belhaven is a vision.” —Rebecca Makkai, New York Times best-selling author of I Have Some Questions for You and The Great Believers

“A lyrical and tender coming-of-age tale.” —Town and Country

“Powerful…. With the sociological complexity of an Edith Wharton novel, Livesey portrays Lizzie butting up against gendered restrictions on her freedom …. Livesey’s lyrical perfection comes at no expense to the plot, which barrels like a runaway train. This is a gem.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Livesey’s vibrant imagery and profound compassion deliver a tragic coming-of-age novel that resonates with her gifted protagonist’s resourcefulness.” —Booklist, starred review

“[An] unconventional coming-of-age tale with engaging characters embedded in an absorbing story.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Compassionately drawn and emotionally charged, Margot Livesey’s novel maps the tenderest places of the human heart and soul and once again displays her indelible grasp on the human condition.” —Shelf Awareness