{"title":"Katherine Packert Burke","description":"\u003cp\u003eKatherine Packert Burke crafts compelling narratives that delve into the complexities of human relationships and personal growth. Her works, including \u003cem\u003eAll Us Saints\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eStill Life\u003c\/em\u003e, offer a rich blend of emotional insight and beautifully drawn characters, inviting readers to explore the depths of connection and resilience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet within the realm of general fiction, Burke’s stories balance introspective moments with vivid storytelling, making her novels both thought-provoking and deeply engaging. Expect evocative prose that illuminates the nuances of everyday life and the strength found in ordinary people.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"still-life-by-katherine-packert-burke-9781324076360","title":"Still Life","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEverything in Edith's life is approaching disaster. Her writing career is stagnant. Her love life is a mess. Her ex, Tessa, is marrying a man. Her teeth are rotting in her skull. And her best friend, Val, is dead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStill Life\u003c\/em\u003e volleys between the present and recent past, chronicling the lives of three women—one cis, two trans, all forever entwined. Edith was a bumbling \"boy\" pre-transition, in love with Tessa, enamored by Val, and drowning in Boston. She and Tessa called each other Joni and Joan, an homage to the musical backdrop of their fledgling adulthood. When Edith decides to leave behind the East Coast for graduate school, she begins a yearslong journey away from the person she loves most and toward a hazy new understanding of who she will become.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the present, Edith visits Boston feeling like a failure of a writer, a failure of a girl, and wracked with guilt over Val's death. Val, the intrepid wanderer, had drifted in and out of Edith's life, arriving in Texas with oestrogen pills and wisdom from a life on the road. A sometimes lover, sometimes trans mentor, Val was everything Tessa wasn't and everything Edith needed. Home alone in Texas, she is left loveless and exhausted as the state slowly chips away at trans rights. Was Val's fatal car crash Edith's fault? Would she have stayed put if Edith had loved her better?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKatherine Packert Burke's debut novel unfolds like a rusty pocketknife, jagged and lacerating. Infused with pop culture, cigarettes, and Sondheim, \u003cem\u003eStill Life\u003c\/em\u003e traces the lives of three friends, authentic and evolving, loving and cruel, here and gone, to craft a tableau of modern womanhood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853301502188,"sku":"9781324076360","price":54.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11447993482659.jpg?v=1759195918"},{"product_id":"all-us-saints-by-katherine-packert-burke-9781639738113","title":"All Us Saints","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAll Us Saints\u003c\/em\u003e is a gorgeous puzzle-box of a book, with the pieces carved from dread, sex, and secrets. Katherine Packert Burke has inventively inverted the psycho-killer, revealing something new and, once again, shocking.” – Torrey Peters, author of \u003cem\u003eStag Dance\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDetransition Baby\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the author of the \"vibrantly, brilliantly alive\" (James Frankie Thomas) \u003cem\u003eStill Life\u003c\/em\u003e, a haunted family reenacts the violent night their lives changed forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExactly 19 years ago, in May of 1992, 17-year-old Roland St. Cloud fatally stabbed his twin sister Edna’s three best friends. The slaying became instant tabloid fodder leading to a bestselling true-crime book and horror movie franchise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEach year on the anniversary of her family’s undoing, Edna reenacts the murders. She is joined by her husband, Roger, the night's definitive chronicler; her younger sister Calla, a failed playwright who spends her days lost in online gaming; her younger brother James and his girlfriend Heather; and her teenage daughter Wren. Together, the St. Cloud family seals the windows and doors of the house and lights a grim candle. After their macabre theatrics, there's nothing to do but wait for dawn, talk among themselves, and remember.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAll Us Saints\u003c\/em\u003e is a literary family drama packaged as a two-act play. Behind the curtain, Packert Burke unveils Roland’s childhood as a closeted trans girl in the early 90s and offers a brilliant and scathing commentary on the cisgender gaze.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48021952037100,"sku":"9781639738113","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/a89d930f290b9a01ca06c983720dee9b.jpg?v=1785971663"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/katherine-packert-burke.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}