Catalogue

Record Details

Catalogue Search



True story : a novel  Cover Image Book Book

True story : a novel / Kate Reed Petty.

Petty, Kate Reed, (author.).

Summary:

"A "mind-blowing, page-turning, unputdownable" novel about the fifteen-year fallout from a poisonous high school rumor, exploring how stories from the past can come to define who we are. A gifted and reclusive ghostwriter, Alice Lovett makes a living helping other people tell their stories. But she is haunted by the one story she cannot tell: the story of, as she puts it, "the things that happened while I was asleep." Back in 1999, Nick Brothers and his high school lacrosse team return for their senior year in a well-to-do Baltimore suburb as the reigning state champs. The afterglow of their big win is bound to last until graduation; not even the pressure of college applications can get in the way of their fun. But when a private school girl attempts suicide in the wake of one of the team's "legendary" parties, and a rumor begins to circulate that two of Nick's teammates sexually assaulted her, it seems like it might ruin everything--until the team circles the wagons, casts doubt on the story, and the town moves on. But not everyone does. Fifteen years later, four people--Alice, Nick, a documentary filmmaker, and a wealthy entrepreneur--remain haunted by the roles they played, the things they still don't understand, and how the story has shaped their lives. In sections told from different points of view, each more propulsive than the last, the layers of mystery are gradually peeled back as we barrel toward the truth of what really happened that night . . . and what came after. At once a compulsive page-turner and a thought-provoking exploration of issues both timely and timeless, True Story marks the debut of a phenomenal new voice in fiction."-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781984877680
  • Physical Description: 323 pages ; 24 cm
  • Publisher: [New York, New York] : Viking, [2020]
Subject: Women ghostwriters > Fiction.
Date rape victims > Fiction.
Rumor > Fiction.

Available copies

  • 7 of 7 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Terrace Public Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 7 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Terrace Public Library PET (Text) 35151001106202 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -

  • Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2020 June #1
    *Starred Review* Petty's innovative, genre-busting debut opens with a vignette set in Barcelona, in which an unnamed narrator addresses another unnamed character, telling her she's sorry for standing her up. From there, the novel rockets through metafictional sections—a script for a horror movie, a first-person narrative, a set of revisions for a college essay, and more—which initially seem disparate but are inevitably connected. In the first substantive segment, a young lacrosse player named Nick Brothers explains what happened to him and his team in 1999. Two boys on Nick's team drove a private school student named Alice Lovett home, and rumors of assault swirled, but no one ever proved what really happened. The event's repercussions ripple out through time, as Petty explores it from various perspectives until revealing a set of shocking truths. Alice gets to tell her side, too, but in a wholly unexpected way. Themes of friendship, abuse, reality, and trauma resonate in this puzzle box of a book, and readers will be unable to put it down until they figure it out. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.
  • Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2020 June #1

    In Perry's captivating debut, 30-something ghostwriter Alice Lovett is haunted by what happened at a lacrosse party 16 years earlier in a Baltimore suburb. In 1999, Nick Brothers and his high school lacrosse team are known for their legendary post-championship parties, usually followed by a midnight recap at their favorite Denny's. After one party his senior year, Nick shows up at Denny's with his crush Haley Moreland just in time to catch two of his teammates bragging about what they did with a passed out private school girl—whom the reader eventually learns is Alice—in the back of one of their cars. The facts of what happened that night morph as the story spreads through their suburban community, and the consequences will shape Alice, Haley, Nick, and his teammates over the following decades. Perry eschews conventional structure, replacing parts of the narrative with drafts of Alice's college admissions essays, her emails to Haley after an abusive relationship as an adult, and Alice and Haley's teenage screenplays to incendiary effect, and they mix seamlessly with the nimble prose. Though the plot sometimes wanders, Perry's page-turner is as sly and devastating as the nature of truth. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. (Aug.)

    Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly.

Additional Resources