The Blue Flower

"novels I return to again and again, with joy and awe."

"And yet some of my all-time favorite novels are historical — “The Greenlanders” (Jane Smiley), “The Blue Flower” (Penelope Fitzgerald) and “War and Peace.”"

""The Blue Flower," by Penelope Fitzgerald, brings me closer to anyone who recognizes it as the masterpiece it is."

""The Blue Flower" and "The Beginning of Spring" both had me abuzz for days the first time I read them. She was curiously perfect."