Nora Jane (55 page)

— Polly Paddock,
Charlotte Observer

ALSO BY

ELLEN GILCHRIST

Rhoda
A Life in Stories

“Rhoda’s feisty, sexy, and devastatingly acute sensibilities make her one of the most engaging and surprisingly lovable characters
in modern fiction.”

— Robert Olen Butler

Sarah Conley
A Novel

“Sarah Conley’s dilemma is easy to explain. Years after her marriage, the man she really loved is available and so is Sarah.
Gilchrist, writing with a steady voice, takes this dilemma and spins it into platinum on every page.”

— Marc Munroe Dion,
Kansas City Star

Victory Over Japan
Stories

Winner of the National Book Award

“Gilchrist’s writing is funny, wise, and wonderful. There are plenty of small, goofy victories for us to cheer at in this
book. That’s good news for all of us who wish these stories could go on and on.”

— USA Today

Ellen Gilchrist is the author of many books of fiction, including the National Book Award-winner
Victory Over Japan
. In 2004 she received the fifth annual Thomas Wolfe Prize from the University of North Carolina. She lives in Ocean Springs,
Mississippi, and in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she teaches at the University of Arkansas.

“To greet Nora Jane and her family again is to feel a certain comfort that something at once hilarious and mystical will occur.”

—Katherine Dieckmann,
New York Times Book Review.

“Nora Jane, you will remember, is the raving beauty and erstwhile self-taught anarchist who robbed a bar in New Orleans, made
her getaway disguised as a Dominican nun, and followed her lover Sandy to California.”

—Frances Taliaferro,
Washington Post Book World.

“Last seen stranded on the Golden Gate Bridge during a major earthquake, Nora Jane is pregnant with twins, worried about identifying
the father.”

—Gail Caldwell,
Boston Globe.

“Nora Jane is adrift, but she’s also a southerner, firmly rooted to her past, and through the twins she connects that past
with her future. The process is as mysterious as the one that enables seagulls to know it’s safe to light on the Golden Gate
Bridge after an earthquake.”

—Sally Helgesen,
Village Voice.

“Some of Gilchrist’s characters—like Nora Jane—can suck the happiness from the ash heaps of poverty, infidelity, depression,
turning their lives around to include deep friendship and babies and angels and forests. If they can do it, well, you follow
my line of thought.”

—Susan Salter Reynolds,
Los Angeles limes Book Review.

This vibrant, hilarious, deeply moving collection brings together for the first time Ellen Gilchrist’s beloved
Nora Jane stories—and culminates in a brilliant new novella

Ellen Gilchrist is the author of many widely acclaimed books, including the story collection Victory Over Japan , which won the National Book Award. In 2004 she received the fifth annual Thomas Wolfe Prize from the University of North Carolina. She lives in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she teaches at the University of Arkansas.