The Magnetic Girl
In rural North Georgia two decades after the Civil War, thirteen-year-old Lulu Hurst reaches high into her father's bookshelf and pulls out an obscure book, The Truth of Mesmeric Influence. Deemed gangly and undesirable, Lulu wants more than a lifetime of caring for her disabled baby brother, Leo, with whom she shares a profound and supernatural mental connection.
I only wanted to be Lulu Hurst, the girl who captivated her brother until he could walk and talk and stand tall on his own. Then I would be the girl who could leave.
Lulu begins to captivate her friends and family, controlling their thoughts and actions for brief moments at a time. After Lulu convinces a cousin she conducts electricity with her touch, her father sees a unique opportunity. He grooms his tall and indelicate daughter into an electrifying new woman: The Magnetic Girl. Lulu travels the Eastern seaboard, captivating enthusiastic crowds by lifting grown men in parlor chairs and throwing them across the stage with her electrical charge.
While adjusting to life on the vaudeville stage, Lulu harbors a secret belief that she can use her newfound gifts, as well as her growing notoriety, to heal her brother. As she delves into the mysterious book's pages, she discovers keys to her father's past and her own future-but how will she harness its secrets to heal her family?
Gorgeously envisioned, The Magnetic Girl is set at a time when the emerging presence of electricity raised suspicions about the other-worldly gospel of Spiritualism, and when women's desire for political, cultural, and sexual presence electrified the country. Squarely in the realm of Emma Donoghue's The Wonder and Leslie Parry's Church of Marvels, The Magnetic Girl is a unique portrait of a forgotten period in history, seen through the story of one young woman's power over her family, her community, and ultimately, herself.
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Jessica Handler's first book, Invisible Sisters: A Memoir has been named by the Georgia Center for the Book as one of the "Twenty Five Books All Georgians Should Read," and is one of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "Eight Great Southern Books in 2009." Atlanta Magazine named Invisible Sisters the "Best Memoir of 2009." Her nonfiction has appeared on NPR (WABE-FM), in Tin House, Newsweek, Jezebel, The Writer, Brevity.com, More Magazine, Southern Arts Journal, Defunct, R.KV.RY, and Ars Medica, and New South. She was awarded a 2010 Fellowship at The Writers Center in Bethesda, the 2009 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellowship for the Kenyon Review Writers' Workshop, and a special mention for a 2008 Pushcart Prize. She is a 2011 Writer In Residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation (CT), visiting writer at Murray State's (KY) MFA low-rez program and also at Oglethorpe University (Atlanta) this fall.
Handler has written on the topic of writing through grief for The Writer magazine and Psychology Today online, and has been a featured speaker in grief and writing workshops with The Decatur (GA) Book Festival, The Atlanta Writers Club, Georgia Writers Association, The Chattahoochee Valley Writers Conference, The Oxford (MS) Creative Nonfiction Conference, Visiting Nurse Health Care Systems, and a featured speaker for the 2010 VistaCare Hospice Lecture Series. She was featured in the February issue of Vanity Fair, along with seven other fabulous southern female writers.Andrew Eiden is an actor and winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award for narration. He has been acting since the age of four, working at regional theaters, in national commercials, and on numerous television shows.
A heartwarming tale of the sacrifices we make for family, the delusions we fall for in the name of love, and the human need to keep on dreaming despite it all. Mesmerizing.
-- "Thomas Mullen, author of Darktown"The Magnetic Girl is a compassionate, clear-eyed coming-of-age tale unlike anything I've read. The story belongs to Lulu Hurst, but Handler is the one doing the true mesmerizing.
-- "Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times bestselling author"Jessica Handler brings history to glorious life in a captivating tale anchored by masterful writing, especially the vivid, unique voice she gives to Lulu Hurst.
-- "Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author"The Magnetic Girl is a gorgeous, brutal book: a strange alchemy of love, fear, fate, and hope.
-- "Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author"Handler's fierce, sensually vivid debut novel takes off from the life of a little-known but fascinating figure from nineteenth-century American history...A thoroughly fresh historical novel that both captures the essence of its time and echoes challenges that still exist today.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"With depth and emotion, The Magnetic Girl will captivate readers.
-- "Booklist"
