The Wine of Astonishment - Paperback

by Rachel MacKenzie (Author)

The Wine of Astonishment is a rediscovered classic: a portrait of two unmarried sisters in upstate New York during the early twentieth century. Esther and Martha are confined to their estate, nearing middle age, and wholly unfamiliar with independence. Sudden death relieves them of their imperious mother but unwittingly exposes them to stifling social rules. Affairs and desires sow dissent and defiance within the joined selves of two sisters, eternal interlopers. Fateful and ironic, MacKenzie's novel is a humble account of the courage it takes to appreciate life exactly as it is.

Back Jacket

With a delicate sense of tragedy and serene lucidity, Rachel Mackenzie, the late fiction editor of the New Yorker, tells the story of the Henderson sisters of Pliny Falls, New York, during the early decades of the twentieth century. Not unlike the characters in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle, Martha and Esther Henderson are drawn with an acute sense of perception, courage, and irony which encompasses humanity.