The Mermaid of Brooklyn
The Mermaid of Brooklyn by Amy Shearn
Paperback, 368 pages
Published April 2nd 2013 by Touchstone
Jenny Lipkin is an average, stretched-too-thin Brooklyn mom, tackling the challenges of raising two children in a cramped Park Slope walk-up and bonding with other moms about breastfeeding while spending endless hours in Prospect Park. All she really wants is to survive the sweltering New York summer with a shred of sanity intact. But when her husband Harry, a compulsive gambler, vanishes one evening without a word, Jenny finally reaches her breaking point. And in a moment of despair, a split second decision changes her life forever.
Pulled from the brink by an unexpected (and, as it turns out, sometimes annoying) supernatural ally, Jenny is forced to rethink her ideas about success, motherhood, romance, and relationships. But confronting her inner demons—of both the mermaid and non-mermaid variety—is no easy task . . .
My thoughts about The Mermaid of Brooklyn ~~
My book group received copies of this book from TLC Book Tours. Thank you, TLC! It's always a mystery each month to see if the members love or hate the book, or think it's just okay. It's not always easy to find a book that everyone likes and connects with. The Mermaid of Brooklyn was one of those books that we all agreed on and we all loved. And there were plenty of things to talk about, so it made an excellent book club pick.
About the author
Amy Shearn was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1979. Ten years later she wrote her first novel, which concerned the adventures of a spunky farm girl named Jenny.
Amy studied in New Mexico, Chicago, and Iowa, before receiving her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Then, for lack of any better ideas, she and her husband, Adam Tetzloff, moved to New York City, where Amy worked as a ghost writer, web editor, and creative writing teacher at NYU-SCPS, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, and Gotham Writers Workshops.
Amy's first novel, How Far Is the Ocean from Here, was published by Crown Books in 2008. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, The Millions, Poets & Writers, The L Magazine, Opium, Five Chapters, and elsewhere. She writes regularly for Oprah.com and RedbookMag.com.
Amy lives in Brooklyn with her family. She is, as ever, at work on a new novel.
Connect with Amy
