A B O U T   T H E   B O O K

How can you weave a life from fairy tales?

Set in Minnesota during the years 1911-1919, Mary Sharratt's acclaimed debut novel is the story of a young German immigrant who translates fairy tales for an enigmatic older woman. The heroine is drawn into a mysterious new world as the tales assume a reality of their own, mirroring her awakening in a time of alienation and war.

Now in its third printing, Summit Avenue is one the publisher's all time best-sellers. A book discussion group favorite, Summit Avenue was a Booksense 76 Pick and was nominated for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award.

"In this remarkable debut, Minnesota native Sharratt weaves dark, evocative fairy tales and passionate longings into an incandescent coming of age story.... Sharratt fills Kathrin's story with sensuality, insight and poetic observation: 'Flat-bottomed, curly-topped prairie clouds were sailing like steamships across the deep blue sky.' These and other haunting images, as well as her inspired use of folklore and myth, add depth to this potent tale."
—Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"I highly recommend this wonderful new novel. I read it in a weekend, absorbed in the story and characters, and was moved to tears by the ending. It is a tale of many things--immigrant life, working in Midwest flour mills, family ties, fairy tales as feminine archetypes--but more than anything, it is the story of two women and how they found their way to each other against all odds."
—Booksense 76 List: Barb Wieser, Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Minneapolis, Minnesota

A "complex and subtle Cinderella tale. Mary Sharratt's debut has almost none of the typical faults of first novels. Her language is lush but controlled, her narrative perfectly paced. Nothing is rushed or condensed."
—Regina Marler, Amazon.com