Praise for The Poet's House
“Jean Thompson’s wry, canny ninth novel [is] a tribute to the soul-saving value of art, a cri de coeur for women striving to make authentic lives, and a pipeline of guidance from the elders to the emerging. Thompson’s skills make us comfortable at once — and she is often very funny.”
— Joan Frank, San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] closely observed, droll, coming-of-age story…absorbing and emotionally resonant. The Poet’s House is a keeper.”
— Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air (NPR)
Listen to the review
“Jean Thompson’s wry, canny ninth novel [is] a tribute to the soul-saving value of art, a cri de coeur for women striving to make authentic lives, and a pipeline of guidance from the elders to the emerging. Thompson’s skills make us comfortable at once — and she is often very funny.”
— Joan Frank, San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] closely observed, droll, coming-of-age story…absorbing and emotionally resonant. The Poet’s House is a keeper.”
— Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air (NPR)
Listen to the review
Praise for The Poet's House
“Ever insightful, imaginative, compassionate, and funny, Thompson is a virtuoso of thorny interactions between wholly realized characters rife with contradictions. “
— Booklist (Starred Review)
“Thompson’s talents for immersive storytelling and sharp characters are on brilliant display. The author’s fans will savor this.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“Ever insightful, imaginative, compassionate, and funny, Thompson is a virtuoso of thorny interactions between wholly realized characters rife with contradictions. “
— Booklist (Starred Review)
“Thompson’s talents for immersive storytelling and sharp characters are on brilliant display. The author’s fans will savor this.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
Praise for A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl
“There’s not a false note in this powerful, beautifully crafted exploration of the trade-offs in women’s lives.”
— People
“[An] incisive, intricate novel … As Thompson examines the present and past of each of the three generations of women, she adroitly reveals how their life experiences shaped them into being so different from one another. Intense, compassionate, and satisfying, Thompson’s novel is filled with real, complex characters whose destinies are inextricably tied to the women in their lives.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“Ever insightful, imaginative, compassionate, and funny, Thompson is a virtuoso of thorny interactions between wholly realized characters rife with contradictions. “
— Booklist (Starred Review)
“Thompson’s talents for immersive storytelling and sharp characters are on brilliant display. The author’s fans will savor this.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
Praise for She Poured Out Her Heart
“Unexpected and gripping… that most engrossing of beasts, a novel about sex… written with Thompson’s typical verve and gusto.”
— Julie Myerson, New York Times Book Review
“Thompson’s best effort yet…a tense, artful, rich and involving novel that strips the world down to its bones and also makes you care deeply for the two women whose lives it lays bare.”
— Julia Keller, The National Book Review
“Ever insightful, imaginative, compassionate, and funny, Thompson is a virtuoso of thorny interactions between wholly realized characters rife with contradictions. “
— Booklist (Starred Review)
“Thompson’s talents for immersive storytelling and sharp characters are on brilliant display. The author’s fans will savor this.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
Praise for The Witch and Other Tales Re-Told
“At their best, Thompson’s stories invoke the dark homeliness of Shirley Jackson’s short fiction, with its ruefully sardonic characters whose meek exteriors conceal a stark assessment of the world’s shortcomings and hypocrisies.”
— Laura Miller, New York Times Book Review
“[S]hrewdly unnerving and bewitching improvisations on fairy tales… clever, caring, funny, and wrenching… Thompson’s wizardly command is spellbinding, and her keen and unexpected revelations are, by turn and twist, grim and ebullient.”
— Booklist, Starred Review
“At their best, Thompson’s stories invoke the dark homeliness of Shirley Jackson’s short fiction, with its ruefully sardonic characters whose meek exteriors conceal a stark assessment of the world’s shortcomings and hypocrisies.”
— Laura Miller, New York Times Book Review
“[S]hrewdly unnerving and bewitching improvisations on fairy tales… clever, caring, funny, and wrenching… Thompson’s wizardly command is spellbinding, and her keen and unexpected revelations are, by turn and twist, grim and ebullient.”
— Booklist, Starred Review