The Lace Reader

Brunonia Barry's debut novel, The Lace Reader, is a gothic story that sits alongside The Thirteenth Tale in spirit. Its narrator, Eva Lane, belongs to a Salem, Massachusetts, family of women said to read the future in lace patterns. Her voice is memorable, but it is also strangely unreliable, so readers must weigh every account she gives.

The novel weaves together passion, suspense and magic. Its haunting atmosphere and its questions about truth and inheritance drive the story forward, and the family's uncanny gift shapes everything around it.

The book was a New York Times bestseller and climbed the best-seller lists in cities across the country, including Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Its success introduced Barry as a new name in contemporary American fiction.