Let the Dark Flower Blossom

An existential murder mystery about two rival writers willing to do anything—lie, steal, kill—to get the perfect story.

Sheldon and Eloise Schell are twins, orphans, and the estranged college companions of the rich, scandalous, celebrated Roman Stone. Now Roman is dead, stabbed in the heart, and Eloise and Sheldon must separately tease out their secret past—a burning house, a murdered girl—that is the one story they could never tell.

Moving between the muffled plush of wintry Chicago, the fog-bound darkness of a Lake Superior island, and the even darker precincts of memory, Let the Dark Flower Blossom is a book about the pull of the closed door. It is about the small pleasure of being right, the tremendous thrill of doing wrong, and the lengths writers will go—lie, steal, kill—to get the perfect story.

Publication date: April 30, 2013

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25

Page count: 384 pages

ISBN: 9781566893206

Norah Labiner is the author of three previous novels: Our Sometime Sister, Miniatures, and German for Travelers. She has received a Minnesota Book Award for Literary Fiction, as well as fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been recognized by the American Library Association, the Jewish Book Council, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers series. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“A dark and truly original work of extraordinary strangeness and beauty.”

—Emily St. John Mandel

“With a wicked sense of humor, a compelling narrative, beautiful lyrical language, and strong characters, Labiner does not disappoint.”

—Arcadia Magazine

“Norah Labiner is an ambitious artist and this may be the most satisfying novel I’ve read all year.”

—Dean Bakopoulos

“A splendid, leisurely meditation on the meaning of fame, identity, and love.”

—Kirkus, starred review

“Let the Dark Flower Blossom will subsume you. It’s a protean universe—lush with scandal, violence, and perverse glamour—where everything and nothing is true.”

—KGB Bar Lit Magazine

“Let the Dark Flower Blossom, in addition to being an elegant and sometimes jarring exploration of the malevolent and destructive power that stories can wield, is for most of its duration a page-turning murder mystery.”

—The Star Tribune

“This is a first-rate, highly literate murder mystery, one that proves even more rewarding . . . on a second read.”

—Minnesota Magazine

“Beautifully worded and stylistically arranged, Let the Dark Flower Blossom is an innovative and candid take on the world of writers, relationships, and human nature itself.”

—The Corresponder