Ben Maddow

The half century between the end of the Civil War and the Declaration of War in 1917 was quiet only in the general misconception. From the ordinary nineteenth-century American's point of view, it was extraordinarily bloody. There were military expeditions against Indian tribes and against Cuba and the Philippines. There was the general strike of 1877, the cruel failure of the unions, and the ides of immigration and their furious personal energy. There was the repeated quest for the Grail of materialism--gold and silver hidden in rock. This book examines, over all, and with some awe, the building of the great pyramid of American industrialization and measures its even more immense--and almost forgotten--human cost. Because it is written from the vantage point of those below, of those new to America and still poor, much of the text is taken from diaries, letters, and contemporary accounts by authors who will forever be unknown.

Photographs and brief rhyming text reveal how various facial expressions show our feelings.

What if our homes could tell the stories of others who lived there before us? Set in a small village near Paris, The Balcony follows the inhabitants of a single estate--including a manor and a servants' cottage--over the course of several generations, from the Belle Époque to the present day, introducing us to a fascinating cast of characters. A young American au pair develops a crush on her brilliant employer. An ex-courtesan shocks the servants, a Jewish couple in hiding from the Gestapo attract the curiosity of the neighbors, and a housewife begins an affair while renovating her downstairs. Rich and poor, young and old, powerful and persecuted, all of these people are seeking something: meaning, love, a new beginning, or merely survival. Throughout, cross-generational connections and troubled legacies haunt the same spaces, so that the rose garden, the forest pond, and the balcony off the manor's third floor bedroom become silent witnesses to a century of human drama. In her debut, Jane Delury writes with masterful economy and profound wisdom about growing up, growing old, marriage, infidelity, motherhood--in other words, about life--weaving a gorgeous tapestry of relationships, life-altering choices, and fleeting moments across the frame of the twentieth century. A sumptuous narrative of place that burrows deep into individual lives to reveal hidden regrets, resentments, and desires, The Balcony is brimming with compassion, natural beauty, and unmistakable humanity.