Rose Metal Press, 2013
Liliane's Balcony: a novella of fallingwater
Starred Review in PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: "[A] symphony of histories both real and imagined."
Buy LILIANE'S BALCONY
About LILIANE'S BALCONY
Set at Frank Lloyd Wright's Iconic FALLINGWATER
Liliane’s Balcony is a multi-voiced novella-in-flash set at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Built for Pittsburgh merchants E.J. and Liliane Kaufmann in 1935, the house is as much a character as it is a setting. One September night in 1952, Liliane Kaufmann—tired of her husband’s infidelities—overdoses on pain pills in her bedroom. From there, Liliane’s Balcony alternates Mrs. Kaufmann’s mostly true story with the fictional narratives of four modern-day tourists who arrive at the historic home in the midst of their own personal crises, all of which culminate on Mrs. Kaufmann’s over-sized, cantilevered balcony. With its ghosts, motorcycles, portraits, Vikings, failed relationships, and many layered voices, Kelcey Parker’s Liliane’s Balcony is as dizzying and intricately beautiful as the architectural wonder in which it is set.
Awards and Reviews
AWARDS
2015 Eric Hoffer Book Award in General Fiction, FIRST RUNNER UP
2014 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) in Literary Fiction, SILVER MEDALIST
2013 Foreword Book of the Year in Literary Fiction, SILVER AWARD
2013 Foreword Book of the Year in Historical Fiction, FINALIST
Reviews
"[A]n inventive novella hybrid, a mix of prose and poetry, past and present, heartbreak and humor. [...] Not unlike Fallingwater’s structure, which masterfully balances the man-made with the natural, Parker sculpts and controls myriad, nearly unwieldy elements to construct a driven plot that illuminates the perched house and those who live within it."
"A syncopated narrative which captures the rhythms and inflections of a multiplicity of voices."
"I found this novella to be remarkably participatory—as art history, as criticism, as meditation, as its own variety of group tour through this site and this history."
"These spare pages please and engage the eye, heart, and mind, like leaves in a chapbook. Liliane’s Balcony is a small elegant book in every way. Readers will be inspired to visit Fallingwater and listen for Liliane’s voice above the falls."
Word Riot
"Because Parker’s sense of character is so strong, and her language so fluid and flowing, the shifting foci do not cause the reader to stumble but instead pull her forward, eager to learn more of each character—as well as of the historical Liliane and Edgar—to watch the way these separate lives seem in some ways so similar and, often, so avoidably tragic."
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