Whiskey & Ribbons

by Leesa Cross-Smith

Overview

O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Books of the Summer

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Set in contemporary Louisville, Leesa Cross-Smith’s mesmerizing first novel surrounding the death of a police officer is a requiem for marriage, friendship and family, from an author Roxane Gay has called “a consummate storyteller.”

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018: Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, Harper's BAZAAR, The Millions, Electric Lit, Book Riot, BookBub, Chicago Review of Books, POPSUGAR, Refinery29, NYLON, and SheReads

Evi—a classically-trained ballerina—was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah.

Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices: Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton, as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he decides to track down the biological father he’s never known.

In the vein of Jojo Moyes’ After You, Whiskey & Ribbons explores the life that continues beyond loss, with a complicated brotherly dynamic reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys. It’s a meditation on grief, hope, motherhood, brotherhood and surrogate fatherhood. Above all, it’s a novel about what it means—and whether it’s possible—to heal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938235542
Publisher:	Hub City Press
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

A PEN Open Book Award Nominee, Leesa Cross-Smith has been a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and Iowa Short Fiction Award. She is the author of the short story collection Every Kiss a War and lives in Louisville, KY.

What People are Saying About This

author of Eat Only When You're Hungry Lindsay Hunter

" Whiskey & Ribbons is the kind of book you cancel everything to curl up with. Don’t even try to put it down; you won’t be able to. Leesa Cross-Smith writes with an open heart and a deft touch, crafting a beautiful meditation on marriage, family, and the hope within loss. I fell in love with these characters. I joined them in their heartbreak, their lust, their yearning, and I missed them after the last page."

author of the novels Sons & Other Flammable Object Porochista Khakpour

Leesa Cross-Smith's Whiskey & Ribbons is an unforgettable debut. The death of a police officer is at the heart of this powerful, moving polyphonic saga, and the stunning lyricism of the style only matches the heartbreaking poetry of its substance. Cross-Smith examines lovers, brothers, mothers, fathers and sons with such mammoth empathy that this is one of those books I find essential for making sense of our world today.

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life Megan Stielstra

"Beautiful and brutal, a gut-punch and a poem—I love this book. I love its characters, their complicated tangle of desire and grief. I love its craft, the back and forth dance between memory and possibility. I found myself talking aloud to Evangeline: Let go, I whispered. Or maybe she whispered it to me. I don't know. She's inside of me now, my head and my heart. I'll tell you what: Cross-Smith is a master."

Interviews

"In Whiskey & Ribbons, Leesa Cross Smith has given us a story of decent, ardent-hearted friends thrust into an unimaginable situation, and its survivors respond with equally surprising grace to impossibly difficult circumstances. Here is a slim, elegant novel that is brilliantly defiant in what it refuses to mention, and clear-eyed in its focus on something we all need more of: a close look at good people navigating unthinkable tragedy."

Editorial Reviews

"Beautiful and brutal, a gut-punch and a poem—I love this book. I love its characters, their complicated tangle of desire and grief. I love its craft, the back and forth dance between memory and possibility. I found myself talking aloud to Evangeline: Let go, I whispered. Or maybe she whispered it to me. I don't know. She's inside of me now, my head and my heart. I'll tell you what: Cross-Smith is a master." —Megan Stielstra, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life

"Cross-Smith's thrilling debut novel, Whiskey and Ribbons, is as immediate and compelling as music. Her three lovers tell their stories, each turning over what we think we know, creating a moving triptych on love, desire, and grief, and the unexpected families life makes for us." —Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

"Leesa Cross-Smith's Whiskey & Ribbons is an unforgettable debut. The death of a police officer is at the heart of this powerful, moving polyphonic saga, and the stunning lyricism of the style only matches the heartbreaking poetry of its substance. Cross-Smith examines lovers, brothers, mothers, fathers and sons with such mammoth empathy that this is one of those books I find essential for making sense of our world today." —Porochista Khakpour, author of the novels Sons & Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion

"In Whiskey & Ribbons, Leesa Cross Smith has given us a story of decent, ardent-hearted friends thrust into an unimaginable situation, and its survivors respond with equally surprising grace to impossibly difficult circumstances. Here is a slim, elegant novel that is brilliantly defiant in what it refuses to mention, and clear-eyed in its focus on something we all need more of: a close look at good people navigating unthinkable tragedy." —Bonnie Nadzam, author of Lion: a Novel

"Written with the emotional impact of Ayobami Adebayo's Stay with Me, this work will appeal to lovers of literary fiction." —Library Journal

"Whiskey & Ribbons is the kind of book you cancel everything to curl up with. Don’t even try to put it down; you won’t be able to. Leesa Cross-Smith writes with an open heart and a deft touch, crafting a beautiful meditation on marriage, family, and the hope within loss. I fell in love with these characters. I joined them in their heartbreak, their lust, their yearning, and I missed them after the last page." —Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You're Hungry

“Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts." —Roxane Gay, author Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and Bad Femininst

From the Publisher

Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts."

author Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and Bad F —Roxane Gay

"Whiskey & Ribbons is the kind of book you cancel everything to curl up with. Don’t even try to put it down; you won’t be able to. Leesa Cross-Smith writes with an open heart and a deft touch, crafting a beautiful meditation on marriage, family, and the hope within loss. I fell in love with these characters. I joined them in their heartbreak, their lust, their yearning, and I missed them after the last page."

author of Eat Only When You're Hungry —Lindsay Hunter

"In Whiskey & Ribbons, Leesa Cross Smith has given us a story of decent, ardent-hearted friends thrust into an unimaginable situation, and its survivors respond with equally surprising grace to impossibly difficult circumstances. Here is a slim, elegant novel that is brilliantly defiant in what it refuses to mention, and clear-eyed in its focus on something we all need more of: a close look at good people navigating unthinkable tragedy."

author of Lion: a Novel Bonnie Nadzam

Leesa Cross-Smith's Whiskey & Ribbons is an unforgettable debut. The death of a police officer is at the heart of this powerful, moving polyphonic saga, and the stunning lyricism of the style only matches the heartbreaking poetry of its substance. Cross-Smith examines lovers, brothers, mothers, fathers and sons with such mammoth empathy that this is one of those books I find essential for making sense of our world today.

author of the novels Sons & Other Flammable Object —Porochista Khakpour

"Cross-Smith's thrilling debut novel, Whiskey and Ribbons, is as immediate and compelling as music. Her three lovers tell their stories, each turning over what we think we know, creating a moving triptych on love, desire, and grief, and the unexpected families life makes for us."

author of The Queen of the Night —Alexander Chee

"Beautiful and brutal, a gut-punch and a poem--I love this book. I love its characters, their complicated tangle of desire and grief. I love its craft, the back and forth dance between memory and possibility. I found myself talking aloud to Evangeline: Let go, I whispered. Or maybe she whispered it to me. I don't know. She's inside of me now, my head and my heart. I'll tell you what: Cross-Smith is a master."

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life —Megan Stielstra

Leesa Cross-Smith's Whiskey & Ribbons is an unforgettable debut. The death of a police officer is at the heart of this powerful, moving polyphonic saga, and the stunning lyricism of the style only matches the heartbreaking poetry of its substance. Cross-Smith examines lovers, brothers, mothers, fathers and sons with such mammoth empathy that this is one of those books I find essential for making sense of our world today.

author of the novels Sons & Other Flammable Object Porochista Khakpour

"Beautiful and brutal, a gut-punch and a poem—I love this book. I love its characters, their complicated tangle of desire and grief. I love its craft, the back and forth dance between memory and possibility. I found myself talking aloud to Evangeline: Let go, I whispered. Or maybe she whispered it to me. I don't know. She's inside of me now, my head and my heart. I'll tell you what: Cross-Smith is a master."

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life Megan Stielstra

"Cross-Smith's thrilling debut novel, Whiskey and Ribbons , is as immediate and compelling as music. Her three lovers tell their stories, each turning over what we think we know, creating a moving triptych on love, desire, and grief, and the unexpected families life makes for us."

author of The Queen of the Night Alexander Chee

Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts."

author Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and Bad F Roxane Gay

" Whiskey & Ribbons is the kind of book you cancel everything to curl up with. Don’t even try to put it down; you won’t be able to. Leesa Cross-Smith writes with an open heart and a deft touch, crafting a beautiful meditation on marriage, family, and the hope within loss. I fell in love with these characters. I joined them in their heartbreak, their lust, their yearning, and I missed them after the last page."

author of Eat Only When You're Hungry Lindsay Hunter

01/01/2018
Following Every Kiss a War, a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor and the Iowa Short Fiction Awards, Cross-Smith reveals life's pleasures, treasures, and inevitable pain in a debut novel. Eamon is a passionately committed police officer shot in the line of duty, leaving behind a loving family that includes wife Evi, unborn son Noah, and adoptive brother Dalton. Upon Eamon's death, Dalton moves in with Evi to help raise Noah. Dalton and Evi grow closer, and a relationship blossoms as they discover more about themselves. The novel is told from the perspective of all three adult characters, moving fluidly between past and present as Eamon speaks before his murder about anticipating fatherhood, Evi speaks months later during a freak blizzard that has trapped her and Dalton, and Dalton ponders the direction of his life. What if? That's the question Evi and Dalton often ask while trying to come to terms with the fact that Eamon is dead. Cross-Smith offers a humanity when some characters could be condemned for their actions and intersperses bits of poetry that make even death tragically beautiful. VERDICT Written with the emotional impact of Ayobami Adebayo's Stay with Me, this work will appeal to lovers of literary fiction.—Ashanti White, Fayetteville, NC

Library Journal

2018-01-23
A debut novel about loss, grief, family secrets, and the unexpected sources from which people take solace after unbelievable tragedy.Cross-Smith (Every Kiss a War, 2014) follows three characters, alternating among their interlinked stories as they struggle to get on with their lives in death's shadow. We find the widowed Evangeline Royce snowed into her house six months after the death of her husband, Eamon, a police officer who was killed on the job. Eamon's lifelong friend Dalton Berkeley-Royce is with her, helping take care of her infant son, Noah, who was born 16 days after his father's death, and she's wrestling with guilt over her developing attraction to a man she'd previously thought of only as a friend. Dalton is also grieving Eamon, who was as close to him as a brother. After his mother committed suicide while he was in middle school, Dalton was adopted by the Royce family; he never knew his biological father. When Eamon died, Dalton swore to protect Evangeline and Noah; he struggles to fulfill that duty while coming to terms with a revelation about his own history and relationship with Eamon. Meanwhile, Eamon's ghost haunts the novel's proceedings both figuratively and literally. He narrates his own life and death from beyond the grave, providing crucial background on the tortured history he shares with Dalton. The structure—modeled after the musical conceit of the fugue, or a melody that is developed via interlocking parts—is an inspired way to tell what is otherwise a simple story. Beyond the tragedy of Eamon's death and the will they/won't they tension of Evangeline and Dalton's relationship, not much actually happens. Instead, the novel is content to circle around the complexities of memory and family history on its way to a revelation that falls a little flat and is occasionally marred by clumsy prose.The intricacies of the grieving process are revealed in this sensitive novel.

Kirkus Reviews