Maria Hummel

A Gentleman in Moscow meets My Brilliant Friend in this novel of two estranged friends who reunite to confront each other and the devastating betrayal that tore them apart Downtown Los Angeles, 1990. Alone in her luxury hotel suite, the reclusive Lacey Crane receives a message: Edith is waiting for her in the lobby. Former best friends, Lacey and Edith haven't spoken to one another in over four decades. As young adults meeting at summer camp in Maine, and later making their way in the glitzy spotlight of postwar Hollywood, Edith and Lacey share a deep-rooted bond that once saved them from isolation and despair, providing comfort from the public and private traumas that they had each endured and which a newly optimistic world was eager to forget. Told through a continuous, twisting conversation that unfolds over the course of a single evening, in which each woman tells her story and reveals long-hidden secrets, the narratives of Edith and Lacey burn with atmosphere, mystery, resentment, and regret. Set against the vivid landscapes of Los Angeles and unfolding with the evanescence of a dream or a memory, Goldenseal peels away the layers of an intimate female friendship to reveal a stirring and haunting story about the search for connection and the lingering echoes of lost love.

A Gentleman in Moscow meets My Brilliant Friend in this novel of two estranged friends who reunite to confront each other and the devastating betrayal that tore them apart Downtown Los Angeles, 1990. Alone in her luxury hotel suite, the reclusive Lacey Crane receives a message: Edith is waiting for her in the lobby. Former best friends, Lacey and Edith haven't spoken to one another in over four decades. As young adults meeting at summer camp in Maine, and later making their way in the glitzy spotlight of postwar Hollywood, Edith and Lacey share a deep-rooted bond that once saved them from isolation and despair, providing comfort from the public and private traumas that they had each endured and which a newly optimistic world was eager to forget. Told through a continuous, twisting conversation that unfolds over the course of a single evening, in which each woman tells her story and reveals long-hidden secrets, the narratives of Edith and Lacey burn with atmosphere, mystery, resentment, and regret. Set against the vivid landscapes of Los Angeles and unfolding with the evanescence of a dream or a memory, Goldenseal peels away the layers of an intimate female friendship to reveal a stirring and haunting story about the search for connection and the lingering echoes of lost love.

A companion to Still Lives--a Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine selection--this savvy thriller exposes dark questions about power and the art world and reveals the fatal mistakes that can befall those who threaten its status quo. Brenae Brasil is a rising star at Los Angeles Art College, the most prestigious art school in the country, and her path to art world celebrity is all but assured. Until she is found dead on campus, just after completing a provocative documentary about female bodies, coercion, and self-defense. Maggie Richter's return to L. A. and her job at the Rocque Museum was supposed to be about restarting her career and reconnecting with old friends. With mounting pressure to keep the museum open, the last thing she needs is to find herself at the center of another art world mystery. But when she uncovers a number of cryptic clues in Brasil's video art, Maggie is suddenly caught up in the shadowy art world of Los Angeles, playing a very dangerous game with some very influential people.

WINNER OF STYLIST BOOK WARSA SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB PICKTHE POOL'S BEDTIME BOOK CLUB PICKSHORTLISTED FOR AMAZON'S BEST MYSTERY/THRILLER OF THE YEAR A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK'Thrilling' Reese Witherspoon'Addictive' Stylist'Vibrant' Observer'Sensational' Guardian 'Elegant' Daily Mail'Wonderful' Sunday Times'Compelling' Entertainment Weekly'Lyrical' Wall Street Journal'Gripping' Bustle'Stunning' LA Times'Smart' Good Housekeeping'Sophisticated' Grazia'Ice-pick sharp' Louise CandlishAs the party of the year gets underway, celebrities and patrons pour into the Rocque Museum to see Kim Lord - L. A.'s artist of the moment - stabbed, strangled, shot, and beaten. It's the opening night of 'Still Lives', Kim's new collection of shockingly graphic self-portraits, in which she impersonates the victims of America's most famous homicides, from Nicole Brown Simpson to the Black Dahlia. Among those gathered is Maggie Richter, a museum editor whose ex, Greg Shaw Ferguson, is in a relationship with Kim. When Kim fails to appear at the party and is declared officially missing, Greg is arrested on suspicion of murder. Suddenly, Maggie finds herself drawn into an investigation of her own, haunted by the thought that Kim has suffered the same terrible fate as the women in her paintings. 'Think a mix of Killing Eve and . . . one of those thrillers that keeps you up till 2am when you've a 6am alarm and you're close to the mark' Stylist 'An up-all-night brain-teaser of a murder mystery. I loved it' Louise Candlish, author of Our HousePerfect for fans of The Girls, Gone Girl and Big Little Lies.

Twelve shocking paintings. Eleven famous murders. One missing artist . . . A Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine Selection Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L. A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women--the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others--and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women. As the city's richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum's opening night, all the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution's flailing finances. Except Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala. Fear mounts as the hours and days drag on and Lord remains missing. Suspicion falls on the up-and-coming gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, who happens to be Maggie's ex. A rogue's gallery of eccentric art world figures could also have motive for the act, and as Maggie gets drawn into her own investigation of Lord's disappearance, she'll come to suspect all of those closest to her. Set against a culture that often fetishizes violence, Still Lives is a page-turning exodus into the art world's hall of mirrors, and one woman's journey into the belly of an industry flooded with money and secrets. "A stunning achievement"--Los Angeles Times

"It's a thrilling mystery that will leave you wondering which characters you can and can't trust . . . There's a twist at the end that still keeps us up at night, it's THAT good." --Reese Witherspoon (A Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine Selection) A REESE'S BOOK CLUB x HELLO SUNSHINE Selection A BOOK OF THE MONTH Selection An Amazon Best Mystery/Thriller of the Year 1 of 22 New Books to Read This Summer (TIME) 1 of 20 New Books to Read in June (Entertainment Weekly) 1 of 30 Exciting New Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List (Buzzfeed) Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L. A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women--the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others--and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women. As the city's richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum's opening night, all the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution's flailing finances. Except Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala. Fear mounts as the hours and days drag on and Lord remains missing. Suspicion falls on the up-and-coming gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, who happens to be Maggie's ex. A rogue's gallery of eccentric art world figures could also have motive for the act, and as Maggie gets drawn into her own investigation of Lord's disappearance, she'll come to suspect all of those closest to her. Set against a culture that often fetishizes violence, Still Lives is a page-turning exodus into the art world's hall of mirrors, and one woman's journey into the belly of an industry flooded with money and secrets. "A suspenseful, splashy story about fame, sex, and how our culture views women's bodies . . . I also loved that it tackled the sticky subject of how women are portrayed in art, culture, and the media--and the consequences of those portrayals. This is a thrilling book, and a much-needed one. Read it and you'll see what I mean." --Book of the Month

Motherland is inspired by stories from author Maria Hummel's father and his German childhood, and letters between her grandparents that were hidden in an attic wall for fifty years. It is the author's attempt to reckon with the paradox of her father a product of her grandparents' fiercely protective love and their status as Mitlaufer, Germans who  went along" with Nazism, reaping its benefits and later paying the consequences. At the center of Motherland lies the Kappus family: Frank is a reconstructive surgeon who lost his beloved wife in childbirth and two months later marries a young woman charged with looking after the surviving baby and his two grieving sons when Frank is drafted into medical military service. Alone in the house, Liesl attempts to keep the children fed with dwindling food supplies, safe from the constant Allied air attacks and the tides of desperate refugees flooding their town. When one child begins to mentally unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy's infirmity or lose him forever to Hadamar, the infamous hospital for  unfit" children. The novel bears witness to the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating final days of the war, as each family member's fateful choice lead the reader deeper into questions of complicity and innocence, to the novel's heartbreaking and unforgettable conclusion.

Motherland is inspired by stories from the author's father and his German childhood, and letters between her grandparents that were hidden in an attic wall for fifty years. It is the author's attempt to reckon with the paradox of her father a product of her grandparents' fiercely protective love and their status as Mitlaufer, Germans who  went along" with Nazism, first reaping its benefits and later its consequences. This page-turning novel focuses on the Kappus family: Frank is a reconstructive surgeon who lost his beloved wife in childbirth and two months later married a young woman who must look after the baby and his two grieving sons when he is drafted into medical military service. Alone in the house, Liesl must attempt to keep the children fed with dwindling food supplies, safe from the constant Allied air attacks, and protected against the swell of desperate refugees flooding their town. When one child begins to mentally unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy's infirmity or lose him forever to Hadamar, the infamous hospital for  unfit" children. The novel bears witness to the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating last days of the war, as each family member's fateful choices lead them deeper into questions of complicity and innocence, to the novel's heartbreaking and unforgettable conclusion.

A child is very ill; there is a hospital. . . . The subject is as basic as a bowl and a nail, wood and a house, and a house on fire. --Fanny Howe, from the introductionHouse and Fire is a mother's love song to her stricken young son, written over the years of his hospitalizations for an acute immune disorder. Maria Hummel is a poet of dazzling formal mastery, whose eerie, radiant lyrics and stories evoke the pediatric ward, California life, and the immortal, endangered world of childhood. This unforgettable debut was selected by Fanny Howe. From House and Fire: for thirty-three yearsI didn't make anythingwith my bodyand thenyour brotherand thenhe sickenedwatching him sleephooked to tubesan empty envelopeinside mefills each dawnwith one long love letterby nightit's mostly apologyA former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry, Maria Hummel is the author of two novels and poetry and prose in Poetry, Narrative, and The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Years of Poetry Magazine. She teaches at Stanford University and lives in San Francisco, California. Fanny Howe has written many books of poetry, and her Selected Poems (UC Press, 2000) won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.

The Dionysus issue of Pantheon Magazine brings forth the resentments of the past, the madness of the present, and, finally, the future of letting go. A pair find themselves outside the city limits to nowhere, a team of researchers find mystery and beauty in the Kahllian Dome-Plains, and a man whose palate craves the most exotic cuts of meat battles the phantoms of a previous life. These stories and more in this collection inspired by Dionysus, god of wine, ecstasy, and ritual madness.