Elaine Beale - Another Life Altogether

Start: February 25, 2010 - 7:00pm

A Great Good Place for Books proudly welcomes Elaine Beale, author of Murder in the Castro, as she reads from her book, ANOTHER LIFE ALTOGETHER: A Novel, Thursday, January 25th, at 7:00 pm.

A keenly observed depiction of the effects of a mother’s mental illness on her young daughter, Another Life Altogether is a profoundly moving, funny, and ultimately heartrending coming-of-age story. Beale's lively narrative captures, with touching accuracy, the plights of adolescence.

After years of living in the shadow of her mother’s mental illness, Jesse Bennett is given a fresh chance at happiness when her family moves to a village in northern England. But just as it seems that she might be able to build a perfect life for herself after befriending two of her new school’s most popular girls, her mother’s worsening mental state and the secret Jesse fiercely guards about herself threaten to destroy her fragile stability. Jesse is an utterly sympathetic narrator who navigates the ups and downs of adolescence with insight, emotional vulnerability, and a wickedly sharp sense of humor. Alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, Another Life Altogether marks the arrival of an immensely gifted novelist.

“Another Life Altogether captivated me from the very first page. Dazzling in its authenticity and utterly absorbing, it is an uplifting story about adolescence, family, and finding one’s place in the world. With the character of Jesse Bennett, Elaine Beale manages to create hope and humor in an otherwise turbulent world. It is a rare, insightful, and gorgeously written novel.”—Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

About the Author

Elaine Beale is the winner of the 2007 Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange contest for a partial draft of this novel. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in several anthologies. Originally from England, she has lived for the past twenty years in Oakland, California.