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Stella Descending: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

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Published:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2007
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
Stella descends, over and over, in the course of this haunting novel. She falls from the womb, since her mother gives birth standing up; she falls for Martin, who delivers her new green sofa and refuses to leave; she falls ill and eventually recovers; but her biggest fall, the descent that suffuses her story, is a plunge to her death off a nine-story building. Memories and observations related by Stella’s adolescent daughter, her curmudgeonly octogenarian friend, three old ladies who witness her final moments, and finally Stella herself combine in cryptic and beguiling ways to unravel the mystery: Playing a lover’s game on that rooftop, did she fall out of her husband’s arms, or was she pushed?
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
12/18/2007
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780307427953
ASIN:
B000XUDI06
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Linn Ullmann. (2007). Stella Descending: A Novel. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Linn Ullmann. 2007. Stella Descending: A Novel. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Linn Ullmann, Stella Descending: A Novel. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Linn Ullmann. Stella Descending: A Novel. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Grouped Work ID:
54ae58ca-b67f-e800-67d3-fe943b113886
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Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 17:28:23
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 02:45:01
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 08:54:14
Last Metadata Change:
Feb 12, 2024 17:50:52
Last Availability Check:
Mar 24, 2024 08:54:17
Last Availability Change:
Oct 26, 2020 14:57:40
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 28, 2024 02:11:39

OverDrive Product Record

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      • bioText: Born in 1966, Linn Ullmann is a graduate of New York University, where she studied English literature and began her graduate studies before returning to Oslo in 1990 to pursue a career in journalism. She had established herself as a prominent literary critic when her first novel, Before You Sleep, was published in 1998 and became a critically acclaimed best-seller throughout Europe. She writes a column for Norway's leading newspaper and lives in Oslo with her husband, son, two stepchildren, and a dog.
      • name: Linn Ullmann
imprint
Anchor
publishDate
2007-12-18T00:00:00-05:00
isOwnedByCollections
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title
Stella Descending
fullDescription
Stella descends, over and over, in the course of this haunting novel. She falls from the womb, since her mother gives birth standing up; she falls for Martin, who delivers her new green sofa and refuses to leave; she falls ill and eventually recovers; but her biggest fall, the descent that suffuses her story, is a plunge to her death off a nine-story building. Memories and observations related by Stella’s adolescent daughter, her curmudgeonly octogenarian friend, three old ladies who witness her final moments, and finally Stella herself combine in cryptic and beguiling ways to unravel the mystery: Playing a lover’s game on that rooftop, did she fall out of her husband’s arms, or was she pushed?
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Kirkus Reviews
      • content: "Haunting, elegiac . . . deft and light enough to work, creating just the right atmosphere of foreboding and regret."
      • premium: False
      • source: Publishers Weekly
      • content: "Wonderfully strange . . . . Ullmann pairs her native Scandinavian starkness with playful prose . . . to peculiar, pleasing effect. . . . Once one enters Ullmann's hypnotic world, the reward is an emotionally rich and layered story about the elusiveness of truth."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        July 21, 2003
        One part unsolvable mystery, one part modern fairy tale, Ullmann's second novel is a wonderfully strange follow-up to 1998's well-received Before You Sleep. In the early morning hours of August 2000 in Oslo, the "more beautiful than beautiful" Stella and her enigmatic husband, Martin, embrace on the roof just before she loses her precarious footing and falls to her death. The three eyewitnesses—each with a curious connection to Stella—and Corinne, the investigating officer, who has the ability to smell guilt, aim to decipher the nature of the embrace: was it Martin's failed effort to save his wife, or a successful attempt to push her? Among Stella's mourners are her two daughters, 15-year-old Amanda (who refers to Martin, her stepfather, as a "wicked sorcerer") and young Bee, whose birth inexplicably disturbed her father, Martin: "Sometimes I would get it into my head that the baby was evil." The mysteries are myriad: how did Martin and Stella feel about each other? What were their true intentions? Does Martin's penchant for bringing out the worst in people ("Other people's contempt is so easily aroused") preclude him from loving his wife? As the only character who doesn't take a turn narrating the story—even Stella chimes in from beyond the grave—he forfeits his chance to defend himself. Ullmann pairs her native Scandinavian starkness with playful prose—often sexually graphic—to peculiar, pleasing effect. The oddness may be off-putting at first, but once one enters Ullmann's hypnotic world, the reward is an emotionally rich and layered story about the elusiveness of truth.

popularity
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