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Margot Livesey

Scotland (b.1953)

Margot Livesey is a Scottish born writer. She is the author of six novels, numerous short stories, and essays on the craft of writing fiction.Livesey came to North America during the 1970s where she worked to get her fiction published, reportedly because her boyfriend at the time was also a writer. Livesey's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and a number of literary quarterlies. She is also the Fiction Editor at Ploughshares, a renowned literary journal. She currently lives in the Boston area and is the writer-in-residence at Emerson College.

Genres: Historical, Literary Fiction, Mystery

Novels

   Homework (1990)
   Criminals (1996)
   The Missing World (2000)
   Eva Moves the Furniture (2001)
   Banishing Verona (2004)
   The House on Fortune Street (2008)
   The Flight of Gemma Hardy (2012)
   Mercury (2016)
   The Boy in the Field (2020)
   The Road from Belhaven (2024)

Collections

Learning by Heart (1986)

Non fiction show

Margot Livesey recommends

The Sunflower Boys (2025)
Sam Wachman
"In The Sunflower Boys, Sam Wachman has accomplished an extraordinary feat: he has written a novel full of wit and warmth that takes us deep into the violence, fear and deprivations of war-time Ukraine. Once I began reading about his passionate and eloquent narrator I couldn't stop. All I wanted was for Artem, and his beloved family, to make it to a place of safety. A gripping and immensely satisfying debut."

The Correspondent (2025)
Virginia Evans
"What a lovely novel . . . I fell in love with the eloquent, stubborn Sybil, such a wonderful character."

The Evening Shades (2025)
Lee Martin
"Who would guess that a cowardly math teacher, fleeing from dubious crimes, and a long time spinster, guilty of fraudulent promises to her library, would fall truly in love? Certainly not their neighbours in Mt. Gilead, nor this reader. The Evening Shades is gorgeously written and suspenseful in the best way. Martin makes us care deeply about his vivid characters. An absorbing novel from a writer at the height of his powers."

We Pretty Pieces of Flesh (2025)
Colwill Brown
"Following Kel, Shaz and Rach's lives from childhood to adulthood is a bit like watching King Lear being acted out every day. The stakes are so high, the passions so deep, the triumphs so vivid but happily, in the face of many missed buses and betrayals, they have each other and another voddie and kebab. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is one of the most remarkable portraits I've ever read of friendship."

Sweet Fury (2025)
Sash Bischoff
"With its audacious, shape-shifting plot and dazzling characters, Sweet Fury is an irresistible novel, always one step ahead of the reader. I love what it reveals about contemporary mores, about our love of cinema and the way we still too often judge women as either heroines or victims. A gorgeous debut."

The Fertile Earth (2024)
Ruthvika Rao
"What a marvelous writer Ruthvika is... The Fertile Earth is a compulsively readable novel."

Familiaris (2024)
(Sawtelle Family, book 2)
David Wroblewski
"I adore Familiaris. David Wroblewski is such a wonderfully inventive writer, he knows so much - how to test a tractor, how to make a table, how to borrow money, how to see the future - but best of all he is a writer of extraordinary characters, human and canine, who will take up residence in your mind and heart. A dazzling and irresistible novel."

Float Up, Sing Down (2024)
Laird Hunt
"What a delight to spend a day with the inhabitants of Bright Creek, their longings and lusts, their memories. Laird Hunt writes so brilliantly about the quotidian-why a woman would leave a tin of paprika on a gravestone; why a boy would be devoted to this headband-and in doing so, he reveals so much else. Float Up, Sing Down is a shimmering, magical book."

Mercury (2024)
Amy Jo Burns
"In her new novel Mercury, Amy Jo Burns writes passionately about the hard realities of work and money, sex and love and what happens when you don't notice that your mother has come home without her shoes. Long after I finished reading, I found myself thinking about her complicated characters and especially about the amazing Marley, a heroine for all seasons who can fix a roof, do the accounts, home school a brother in law, make a family. What a lovely, satisfying novel."

Broughtupsy (2024)
Christina Cooke
"What a brilliant novel Broughtupsy is with its crackling dialogue and vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells of Kingston--don't read it when you're hungry! I longed for nothing more than for Akua, the passionate, opinionated heroine, to safely navigate the vicissitudes of loss and sisterhood. A stunning debut."

A Council of Dolls (2023)
Mona Susan Power
"This tender and magical novel will stay with me for a long time. Mona Susan Power writes with dazzling empathy. The result is a heart-rending and many-layered narrative, a captivating story which is also a thrilling testimonial to the power of stories."

Inside the Wolf (2023)
Amy Rowland
"There may or may not be wolves in North Carolina but they haunt Rachel, the narrator and, finally, the heroine of Inside the Wolf. I love the cunning structure of this novel and the wonderful intelligence with which Amy Rowland explores what it means to live in a place where everyone knows your past. I couldn't wait to see what her richly imagined characters would do next."

Sidle Creek (2023)
Jolene McIlwain
"Jolene McIlwain is a master of the vividly imagined natural world and of complicated characters, young and old. Meals burned and letters went unanswered as I waited to find out if the baby would survive, which boy would win the fight, whether the deer had escaped in these suspenseful stories. Sidle Creek is a marvellous debut."

Beyond That, the Sea (2023)
Laura Spence-Ash
"What a wonderful novel! I loved Beatrix as a girl, discovering America, and perhaps even more as a young woman, back in post-war London. Spence-Ash writes with such insight about her characters on both sides of the Atlantic and she is a mistress of suspense. I was deeply sorry to reach the last page."

The Promise of a Normal Life (2023)
Rebecca Kaiser Gibson
"Rebecca Kaiser Gibson writes with a poet's precision and a novelist's sense of character as she deftly evokes her narrator's family, childhood summers, friendships, travels, and love affairs. The result is a radiant and transporting novel which carries the reader along with its wonderful sense of time and place."

A Gracious Neighbor (2022)
Chris Cander
"I couldn't stop turning these witty, suspenseful pages. What new lengths would the endearing and exasperating Martha go to in her pursuit of friendship? This is a sparkling and deeply satisfying novel."

Walk the Vanished Earth (2022)
Erin Swan
"Walk the Vanished Earth is a dazzling novel of the future and the past. In the very best way, I never knew where Erin Swan would take me next but I always wanted to follow her, whether it was to a Piggly Wiggly in Kansas City or to a floating city among the rooftops or a garden on Mars. Her characters are passionate and unforgettable and her prose is dazzling. A stunning debut."

She Is Haunted (2022)
Paige Clark
"Paige Clark is a wonderfully sly, fierce and fearless writer and She is Haunted is full of the best kinds of surprises. I couldn't stop turning the pages."

Private Way (2022)
Ladette Randolph
"In richly evocative prose Ladette Randolph describes the triumphs and failures of Vivi's new life offline. With its complicated characters and lovely evocations of Nebraska, Private Way is a surprising and utterly absorbing novel."

Jane of Hearts and Other Stories (2022)
Katharine Weber
"With eloquence, wit and wisdom, Katharine Weber transports her readers from Madagascar to Connecticut, from jury duty to a feast of poisonous mushrooms. In the best way, I never knew what I would find on the next page in this wonderfully engaging, vividly peopled collection."

Yonder (2022)
Jabari Asim
"The magic of Yonder is the hope and love and devotion that shine from its pages despite the darkness and brutality that surround its loving, beloved characters. Asim's story is utterly absorbing. His people have wings; let them transport you."

The Latinist (2022)
Mark Prins
"Mark Prins weaves together an extremely contemporary plot-an American academic caught up in the machinations of her advisor at Oxford-with a much older plot-the discovery of a second-century Roman poet. The two thrillingly intertwine and the result is a wonderfully suspenseful novel. The Latinist is a brilliant debut."

Pony (2021)
R J Palacio
"Once you open Pony, R.J. Palacio’s astonishing new novel, your life will no longer be your own. From the first pages, I fell under the thrall of the remarkable Silas, a boy as wise as he is brave. . . . An utterly absorbing, beautifully written book."

The Living and the Lost (2021)
Ellen Feldman
"A deeply satisfying and truly adult novel."

Savage Tongues (2021)
Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi
"In Savage Tongues the immensely gifted Van der Vliet Oloomi describes a woman walking the razor thin line between memory and madness as she tries to rescue her younger self. Happily Arezu does not walk the line alone. This vivid account of the haunting nature of trauma is also a wonderful testimonial to friendship. A resonant and powerful novel."

Snowflake (2021)
Louise Nealon
"Can a young woman be innocent yet outrageous, longing to succeed at university yet close to failing, deeply embarrassed by her manic depressive mother yet devoted? Yes, yes, yes. Louise Nealon’s beguiling narrator Debbie is all these things, and much more. Snowflake is a wonderfully inventive, deeply felt novel full of the best kinds of surprises."

Revival Season (2021)
Monica West
"In these wonderfully dramatic and gripping pages, fifteen-year-old Miriam finds herself fighting a duel with her powerful father. The stakes couldn’t be higher: faith, family, money, power and the healing of a damaged child. I love how complicated these characters are and how intelligently West writes about the mysteries of the church. A brilliant debut."

Phase Six (2021)
Jim Shepard
"No amount of prior admiration for Jim Shepard’s fiction prepared me for the magnificent Phase Six—a book at once so wise and so funny, so bleak and so tender. With astonishing virtuosity, he conveys huge amounts of information in a way that is not only lucid but utterly gripping, and he creates characters who make me want to rush into the novel to save them from the virus and themselves. What a triumph!"

Her Here (2021)
Amanda Dennis
"In Her Here, Dennis has written a metaphysical investigation that is also a wonderfully personal account of a daughter coming to terms with the loss of her mother, and a mother coming to terms with the loss of her daughter. As Elena conjures Ella’s last days, the richly imagined narrative moves back and forth between Paris and Thailand, carrying both characters and readers to a vivid and suspenseful conclusion."

Good Neighbours (2021)
Sarah Langan
"In the wonderfully inventive Good Neighbors, Sarah Langan takes her readers on a wild ride through suburbia. As sinkholes open and rumours rise, I couldn’t stop turning the pages to find out what new terrible event would befall these fascinating characters, each with a secret sorrow. A gripping read."

What Happens at Night (2020)
Peter Cameron
"In the beautiful What Happens at Night, Peter Cameron sends a married couple to a mysterious northern country where only the schnapps is reliable. The world he creates is both recognizable and enchantingly strange. I never knew what was going to happen next, and I couldn’t stop turning the pages. A profound pleasure for readers."

The Party Upstairs (2020)
Lee Conell
"In The Party Upstairs Lee Conell follows Martin and Ruby, father and daughter, through a single day as they negotiate the exasperating occupants, living and dead, of the co-op where Martin works as the superintendent. Conell writes with wonderful wit and empathy about the importance of money, the longing for a larger life and the confusions between a parent and an adult child. An irresistible novel."

The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls (2020)
Ursula Hegi
"The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls is a novel full of marvels?children with missing fathers, girls too young to be mothers, nuns who cherish their charges, circus acrobats, the beautiful northern light - but the greatest marvel is Ursula Hegi’s shimmering, radiant, vivid prose. Her characters, and their lives full of love and longing, leap off the page and into the reader’s heart."

Before Anyone Else (2020)
(BAE, book 1)
Leslie Hooton
"Like a good tasting menu Leslie Hooten’s Before Anyone Else is full of delicious contrasts and dazzling surprises. It is also wonderfully suspenseful as we watch the fragile and intrepid Bailey make her way in the complicated world of restaurant design. Hooten understands so well how love and work are often intertwined. A splendid debut."

Weather Woman (2018)
Cai Emmons
"Weather Woman tells the utterly absorbing story of a failed graduate student who goes from reporting the weather - she's a singing meterologist - to having a much more complicated relationship with it. As Bronwyn gradually discovers her powers, she also struggles to use them responsibly. In doing so, she finds herself arguing with sceptics and believers alike. Cai Emmons has written a deeply fascinating and extremely timely novel."

Thank Your Lucky Stars (2018)
Sherrie Flick
"Flick's new collection brims with wit and wisdom, love and disaster, and the best kinds of surprises."

The Great Believers (2018)
Rebecca Makkai
"The Great Believers is by turns funny, harrowing, tender, devastating, and always hugely suspenseful. It reminds us, poignantly, of how many people, mostly young, often brilliant, were lost to the AIDS epidemic, and of how those who survived were marked by that struggle. This is Rebecca Makkai at the height of her powers."

Wonderblood (2018)
Julia Whicker
"In fiercely glittering prose Julia Whicker evokes an apocalyptic America where medicine is illegal, everyone is searching for portents and only a severed head can offer protection. I love how richly imagined this novel is and I love how relentlessly it moves towards its amazing climax. Wonderblood is a stunning debut."

Paris by the Book (2018)
Liam Callanan
"In Paris by the Book, the marvelously gifted Liam Callanan tells a spellbinding story of reading and writing, romance and marriage, French frozen food and a small bookshop. I loved walking the streets of Marais with his eloquent narrator. And I loved how Callanan simultaneously reveals the history of her marriage and of her adopted city. Open a bottle of wine, open this wise and wonderful book, and enjoy."

The Balcony (2018)
Jane Delury
"From the opening pages of The Balcony I was enthralled by Jane Delury's picture of Benneville and by her expansive sense of character. In ways both profound and moving she shows on page after beautiful page how her characters live inextricably in a time and a place. A stellar debut."

Winter Kept Us Warm (2018)
Anne Raeff
"From the first night that Ulli, Leo, and Isaac meet, in a bar in Berlin the winter after the war, the reader is absorbed in their history and their fate. Raeff writes with vivid assurance about Berlin, America, and Morocco, about men and women, about love and work. As the boundaries between characters shift, as past and present converge, Winter Kept Us Warm casts a dazzling spell. A wonderful novel."

Bonnie (2018)
Christina Schwarz
"Bodies fall, blood flies, Bonnie and Clyde sleep in stolen cars and can’t eat in restaurants but so long as they are in the headlines all is well. In Bonnie, Schwarz has created a mesmerizing portrait of a young woman who longs to live a larger life and who almost always acts in her own worst interests. A stunning novel."

The Weight of Ink (2017)
Rachel Kadish
"A beautiful, intelligent and utterly absorbing novel."

'Round Midnight (2017)
Laura McBride
"Round Midnight is a passionate, gripping and beautifully written novel."

The Halo Effect (2017)
Anne D Leclaire
"The Halo Effect is both profoundly moving and deeply satisfying."

The Longings of Wayward Girls (2013)
Karen Brown
"Ethralling...Once you've discovered this haunted world, you won't want to leave it."

Broken Irish (2011)
Edward J Delaney
"In Edward J. Delaney's South Boston little is lost, nothing forgotten. Old sins, old wounds haunt his characters, young and old, and reverberate throughout his wonderfully complicated plot. Broken Irish is an enthralling, satisfying novel."

The Quickening (2010)
Michelle Hoover
"A fully realized, sensually vivid, psychologically intelligent novel that is hard to believe is a debut, but it is a sparkling one."

Commuters (2010)
Emily Gray Tedrowe
"Tedrowe explores the reconfigurations of a family and the strange alliances that can occur between young and old, love and work. A deeply satisfying debut."

Resurrection (2006)
Tucker Malarkey
"An irresistible heroine... an immensely suspenseful novel."

The Dressmaker (2006)
Elizabeth Birkelund
"Utterly irresistible ... The Dressmaker is a delight."

London Is the Best City in America (2006)
Laura Dave
"With its suspenseful plot, endearing heroine and vivid prose, Laura Dave's London is the Best City in America is an immensely appealing novel. A sparkling debut."

Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You (2004)
Laurie Lynn Drummond
"Brilliant."

Blood (2001)
Patricia Traxler
"With her stunning first novel, Blood, Patricia Traxler plunges the reader into a world both familiar and eerie. Seldom have the twin obsessions of love and art been more vividly or intelligently portrayed. What an elegant, suspenseful, and steamy debut."

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