Mary Coin
by Marisa Silver
Buy on AmazonIn 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road in Central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting the migrant laborers who have taken to America's farms in search of work. Little personal information is exchanged, and neither woman has any way of knowing that they have produced what will become the most iconic image of the Great Depression. Three vibrant characters anchor the narrative of Mary Coin. Mary, the migrant mother herself, who emerges as a woman with deep reserves of courage and nerve, with private passions and carefully-guarded secrets. Vera Dare, the photographer wrestling with creative ambition who makes the choice to leave her children in order to pursue her work.…
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"Marisa Silver’s Mary Coin pulls you into the story behind — and beyond — photographer Dorothea Lange and the subject of her iconic, Depression-era photo Migrant Mother. As expertly cropped and framed as a fine photographic print, this compassionate historical novel is about steely fortitude, ferocious maternal devotion and guilt, and what it means to really focus and see deeply. It’s a beautiful read, as haunting as the portrait that inspired it, and would make an especially wonderful gift coupled with a book of Lange’s photographs."
NPR Books We Love — 2013 · apps.npr.org