Revolution [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jennifer Donnelly (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 12, 2010

From the privileged streets of modern Brooklyn to the heart of the French Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart.


BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.
 
PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.
 
Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.
 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2010: Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly's remarkable new novel, weaves together the lives of Andi Alpers, a depressed modern-day teenager, and Alexandrine Paradis, a brave young woman caught up in the French Revolution. While in Paris with her estranged father, a Nobel geneticist hired to match the DNA of a heart said to belong to the last dauphin of France, Andi discovers a diary hidden within a guitar case--and so begins the story of Alexandrine, who herself had close ties to the dauphin. Redemption and the will to change are powerful themes of the novel, and music is ever present--Andi and Alex have a passion for the guitar, and the playlist running through Revolution is a who's who of classic and contemporary influences. Danger, intrigue, music, and impeccably researched history fill the pages of Revolution, as both young women learn that, "it is love, not death, that undoes us."--Seira Wilson

From Publishers Weekly

Donnelly (A Northern Light) melds contemporary teen drama with well-researched historical fiction and a dollop of time travel for a hefty read that mostly succeeds. Andi Alpers is popping antidepressants and flunking out of her Brooklyn prep school, grieving over her younger brother's death. She finds solace only when playing guitar. When the school notifies her mostly absent scientist father that she's flirting with expulsion, he takes Andi to Paris for Christmas break, where he's testing DNA to see if a preserved heart really belonged to the doomed son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Andi is ordered to work on her senior thesis about a (fictional) French composer. Bunking at the home of a renowned historian, Andi finds a diary that relates the last days of Alexandrine, companion to (you guessed it) the doomed prince. The story then alternates between Andi's suicidal urges and Alexandrine's efforts to save the prince. Donnelly's story goes on too long, but packs in worthy stuff. Musicians, especially, will appreciate the thread about the debt rock owes to the classics. Ages 14–up.
Copyright © PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385737637
• ISBN-13: 978-0385737630
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 1.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (175 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My first childhood memories are of dad trying to get me to eat lima beans, and my mom telling me stories. I still won't eat lima beans, but the stories have stuck with me, and these days, I'm telling a few of my own.

I've written three novels so far: A Northern Light, The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and Humble Pie, a picture book for children.

My first novel, The Tea Rose, an epic set in London and New York in the late 19th century, was called 'exquisite' by Booklist, 'so much fun' by the Washington Post, a 'guilty pleasure' by People and was named a Top Pick by the Romantic Times.

My second novel, A Northern Light, set in the Adirondack Mountains of 1906, against the backdrop of an infamous murder, won the Carnegie Medal, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Borders Original Voices Award, and was named a Printz Honor book. Described as 'rich and true' by The New York Times, the book was named to the Best Book lists of The Times (London), The Irish Times, The Financial Times, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and the School Library Journal.

The Winter Rose, my third novel and the second book in the The Tea Rose trilogy, is out now in the United Kingdom and will be published in the United States in January 2008.

Humble Pie, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Stephen Gammell, tells the story of a selfish little boy named Theo who ultimately gets his just desserts.

I live in New York's Hudson Valley with my husband, our daughter, and Hannibal Lecter, our snapping turtle, whom we love dearly, but from a distance.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars There Are All Kinds of Revolutions October 1, 2010

By Tamela Mccann TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

In Jennifer Donnelly's exquisite new young adult book, Revolution, there's a juxtaposition of two young lives, lived two hundred years apart, and the idea and reality of Revolution. In modern times, Andi Alpers is a high school senior at the exclusive New York school St. Anselm's, and while her life should be one of ease and comfort, she's haunted by the sudden, tragic death of her younger brother Truman two years before. During the French revolution, Alexandrine Paradis is a teen whose very life depends upon her ability to be a convincing actress and spy. Brought together by Alex's diary, the two young women are on different paths to self-discovery, yet neither one may survive.

Andi's a tragic figure in many ways, and her story isn't a pretty one. Never very close to her father, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, the death of Truman drives a wedge further into their relationship, particularly once he leaves Andi and her mother for good. Andi's mother retreats into a cloud of painting and depression until Andi's father is forced to place her into a mental institution; her pain is echoed in Andi, who also finds that popping prescription anti-depressants numbs her to the guilt she feels over Truman. In a life filled with drugs and soul-rending pain, Andi considers repeatedly taking her own life; the only force of good she feels is when she can retreat into music. It is this force that draws her to Virgil, a young man she meets when she's forced by her father to go to Paris with him while her mother is institutionalized. It is there that she finds Alex's diary, and her journey back in time begins.

There is so much to this story, so many layers revealed, often slowly; yet getting inside Andi's mind is difficult because she puts up defenses that make it hard even for the reader to get close to her. The adults in her life have let her down so often that there is no hope for her there, and yet she's isolated herself from almost everyone in order to squelch the pain she feels over Truman. When Virgil appears and offers her something to hold on to, it almost makes you want to scream at her to grab him and never let go, yet Andi's tenuous hold on life is so fragile it seems possible that she will not make it. It is only as she loses herself in the pages of Alex's diary that she can discover what it is she needs to do in order to make peace with her losses.

Donnelly's writing is rich and full of depth, and the parallel lives of these two young women are both equally engaging. There is so much feeling among the pages, and Andi's self-destructive behavior makes your heart hurt as you are forced to experience her life. Donnelly weaves history effortlessly into the story, and I was particularly impressed with her grasp of historical music. The voices of Andi and Alex are going to be with me a very long time and I cannot recommend this one highly enough. Jennifer Donnelly, your writing never lets me down. Five plus stars.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "I will not last much longer..." November 16, 2010

By Mr. August VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

What I thought would be a rather trite novel of two teens with evolving emotions divided by 200 years, this book was anything but commonplace. I was surprised by the intensity and originality of the author's melding of societies and out-sized passions.

Ms. Donnelly demonstrates respect for the intellect of young women. From the articulate first chapter where she describes Andi Alpers, who is not always lucid, to the final sentence, I was impressed with Andi's perception of her peers and her own insurmountable grief. Despite her haunting sorrow and guilt, she holds on to her astuteness and ability to learn. A gifted musician, Andi is suffering from the loss of her younger brother, her guilt has sent her in a tailspin of drugs and self-loathing. Donnelly captures Andi in the first few chapters and the readers are aware they are dealing with a brilliant, 17-year-old girl who is on edge of suicide and appears to be floating from minute to minute in agony. She reaches out to her mother, an artist, who cannot overcome the death of her son, Truman, and placates her with kindness and gifts. Her father, a successful Nobel Prize winning geneticist, sends her mother to a mental hospital and takes Andi to Paris. Placing her mother in a mental hospital is an affront to Andi and she fights her father for her mother's dignity. One of my favorite lines occurs when Andi corrects Dr, Becker (the hospital's psychiatrist) grammar and usage.

Her father has his rules: she is to work on her thesis to graduate from her elite school by creating a plausible outline and plan in order to graduate. So how can Andi use her brilliance to overcome her grief and re-enter the world? Her father drags her to Paris where he is working on a secret project and the story begins. Finding a diary, presumably written by another young woman stowed in a guitar case, we are introduced to Alexandrine Paradis, also a 17-year-old girl, who becomes the servant to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI by entertaining their young son, Louis Charles (dauphin). Donnelly hits the reader every which way as she takes us through the French Revolution. As in all revolutions, no one is a winner; the winners often become more violent and greedy than those they replaced. But Donnelly adds more spin to this history by giving the reader a tactile and olfactory sense of the times. As Alex (and Andi) attempt to survive during the 1790's, Donnelly's writing is so sharp, I can smell the sweat and grime on the peasants, the powdered wigs on the upper classes and the blood pouring off the guillotines. In addition to blending two stories of desperate young women, she presents the French Revolution for what it was, the hungry remained hungry, good and bad citizens were slaughtered and the quest for food and lodging was always a premium for the masses.

Andi and Alex were entertainers. Andi's scholarship was never glossed over and neither was Alex's mission to impart a lasting remembrance for 10-year-old Louis Charles. Locked away in the Temple Prison, it is said that he received no care, no human contact and withered away. There are multiple journeys in this novel and they are all difficult. Andi, consumed by guilt, needs to replenish her reason to live and Alex, consumed to do the right thing, becomes another martyr.

Secondary characters are all well crafted. Andi's best friend, Vijay, is a clever, brilliant young man, whose mother, Mrs. Gupta could rival six Jewish mothers who want their sons to go to Harvard. And Alex's family, who may love each other, but must spend every waking moment trying to survive, could live in any era.

Andi and Alex are artists, one a musician and the other an actress. Their talents served them well, in whatever century they existed. This is a unique, well- researched novel (check out the bibliography), which I recommend highly.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Gulped this down in one sitting... November 3, 2010

By Ryan Kelley VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Andi and Alexandrine have a lot in common. They are both musicians. They have trouble relating to their parents. They are both suffering from the loss of someone they love. What the two DON'T have in common: Andi lives in 21st century Brooklyn; Alex lived through the French Revolution and served the doomed King and Queen (Marie Antoinette).

When she discovers Alex's diary while visiting Paris over Christmas break, Andi is in a very gloomy, dark place. She still blames herself for her brother's death two years earlier, her parents are divorced, and she's failing out of her upper class private school just when she should be looking into a college. She soon becomes completely absorbed by Alex's diary, which helps her put her own grief into perspective.

Overall I enjoyed the story and the characters very much. While this novel isn't going to be for everyone I think the audience it's intended for will eat it up. I really enjoyed it, it was a fun and satisfying read.