The Gossip Columnist's Daughter - by Peter Orner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Convinced that the key to the unraveling of his own life is tied to the tragic death of a young Hollywood starlet, an unheralded writer embarks on a quest to solve the cold case--a new novel by "a major talent" (New York Times) and "one of the most distinctive voices of his generation" (Granta).

Jed Rosenthal hasn't published a book in fourteen years, the mother of his child left him in a "trial separation" that has stretched on indefinitely, and he struggles to navigate the daily sorrows of their co-parenting arrangement. But the implosion of Jed's family is simply a footnote in the larger history of the Rosenthal family's decline.

Just days after the JFK assassination, Karyn "Cookie" Kupcinet was found dead in her Hollywood apartment. The press reported that the 22-year-old was strangled, yet unanswered questions linger to this day. Cookie's parents--Chicago royalty, Irv and Essee Kupcinet--had been close friends with Jed's grandparents, but in the aftermath of her death, their friendship abruptly and inexplicably ended. Decades later, Jed pores over family stories, newspaper archives, old photos, and crime scene notes, believing that if he can divine the truth of Cookie's death--whether it was suicide, murder, or part of a larger conspiracy--it might shed light on a mystery closer to home.

Spanning seventy plus years, and weaving together family drama and a true-life unsolved case, The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is a singular, wryly comic, and deeply human exploration into friendship and the bonds that sustain us.

Review Quotes

"The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is a monumental tapestry stitched from history's scraps: neighborhood rumors, family legends, and unsolved mysteries. It's a novel about the secrets we keep, the answers we seek, the unfinished business of the pasts we inherit. Peter Orner has already cemented his reputation as one of the great chroniclers of life in Chicago. With The Gossip Columnist's Daughter he has become one of the great chroniclers of life full stop."--Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

"The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is a fascinating fictional account of a real-life tragedy that captures a Chicago that has largely disappeared. A must-read for anyone interested in Chicago, the underworld, show business, and the important role of gossip columnists during the period between World War Two and the 1960s. Peter Orner weaves an absorbing tale of friendships gone wrong, gangsters, murder, and the struggles of a writer trying to understand both his and his family's past."--Dominic A. Pacyga, author of Chicago: A Biography

"A writer's investigation into the mysterious death of a Hollywood starlet is a springboard for Peter Orner's brilliant and powerfully moving portrait of two Chicago families whose braided lives tell an indelible story of politics, social history, and most of all love--bruising, inexplicable, and enduring love. The Gossip Columnist's Daughter is exquisitely conceived, vast in its reach, and tender in its mercies. Orner is, quite simply, one of the finest writers of our time."--Marisa Silver, New York Times bestselling author of Mary Coin

Praise for Maggie Brown & Others

"A master of flash fiction tosses Chekhov and Carver into a blender, adds a dash of Catskills wit, and serves up an effervescent cocktail conjuring sunset beach strolls and marriages on the rocks."--O, The Oprah Magazine

"It's been apparent since his first book, "Esther Stories" (2001), that Peter Orner was a major talent...His exacting prose casts an elegiac and autumnal glow...You know from the second you pick him up that he's the real deal. His sentences are lit from below, like a swimming pool, with a kind of resonant yearning that's impossible to fake...He has that gift (Keats saw it in Shakespeare) of "negative capability"--in part that passive yet electric ability to submerge himself in the thoughts and emotions of a wide range of humans...Orner can do anything."--Dwight Garner, New York Times

"There are forty-four stories in this collection, and they are all marvels of concision and compassion. Pick it up. Trust me."--Washington Post

About the Author

Born in Chicago, Peter Orner is the author of seven acclaimed books including Maggie Brown & Others, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, finalist for the Pen/ Hemingway Award, and Am I Alone Here?, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Best American Stories, and been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. A former Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Orner is chair of the English and Creative Writing Department at Dartmouth College. He lives with his family in Vermont, where he's also a volunteer firefighter.