Spinning at the Edges
A Novel
Elizabeth Poliner
From the author of the acclaimed As Close to Us as Breathing, a captivating novel steeped in history, revealing the bonds of family and community, and the healing powers hidden inside broken hearts.
For much of her adult life Ruth Pearl has lived in the small New England town of Wells, Connecticut, on the shore of Lake Topaqua. Decades back, when she was fourteen, she and her parents fled German-occupied Amsterdam after the murder of her beloved older sister Sophia, and in the wake of such loss, Ruth has long taken comfort in the natural beauty of her lake view.
But in the winter of 2000, Ruth’s neighbor builds an addition to his home that blocks Ruth’s view, a disruption of her peace that sparks fear that her tumultuous past is happening again.
One day, seeking solace, Ruth heads out for a cathartic skate on the lake only to spot a boy in the distance falling through the ice. Also witnessing this event is Judge Arthur Cantrell, by chance in Wells that day to avoid the consequences of a failed romance. Together, Ruth and Arthur save Ian Lima, a despairing sixteen-year-old, and over the days to come, as Ruth and Arthur help Ian heal, they find themselves healing too. Soon enough, this turn of events begins to impact Ruth’s daughter, Ian’s mother, and even Arthur’s love interest.
In Spinning at the Edges, Elizabeth Poliner, a masterful storyteller, seamlessly interweaves the lives of a rich cast of characters living in two historical time periods—America 2000, marked by a controversial presidential election, and Netherlands 1941, marked by rising fascism—to tell an unforgettable story about how the past haunts the present, how sharing pain heals, and how love—and even democracy—are fragile concepts in a changing, spinning world.
"Throughout the novel, Poliner shows her mastery of language and her background in poetry through beautiful imagery. She moves seamlessly between Amsterdam, Washington, D.C., and Connecticut, allowing readers to immerse themselves in each setting and time period. . . . Ultimately, in Spinning at the Edges, Poliner has created a powerful study of the strength and fragility that comes with every human connection, as well as the effect of intergenerational trauma.” —The Jewish Book Council
"Spinning at the Edges explores both the inner fragility of individuals and the outer fragility of the systems that shape their lives. It is a novel about the persistence of trauma and the illusion of control, rendered with emotional precision and restraint. Poliner moves seamlessly through multiple perspectives and time periods, sustaining a quiet intensity throughout. The result is a beautifully written, deeply observed novel and a sure-footed follow-up to her last." —Lilith
"Book after captivating book, Elizabeth Poliner has been building an exceptional body of work full of characters who rise up from her pages and perform exquisite, literary magic. Spinning at the Edges is, simply, a marvel, because Poliner knows a story of lasting quality needs no flashing neon lights but only people who get up from their beds and go on with lives both simple and complex. Poliner does this with uncommon skill whether her people are fleeing World War II Amsterdam or skating in the dark on a Connecticut lake or walking the streets of Washington, D.C." —Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Known World
“Elizabeth Poliner’s Spinning at the Edges cracks the surface of the present to expose the underlying turbulence of the silenced past. In pages resonant with the heartbreak of history, she lets us glimpse the ways our lives can collide, and the unexpected gifts these collisions can give." —Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink
"Spinning at the Edges is an absorbing story of entangled lives, a meditation on grief and justice, the weight of the past, and the dizzying uncertainties of the future. Without ever losing sight of the humanity of her characters, Elizabeth Poliner depicts, with wisdom and grace, the common challenge we all face to find meaning in a whirling world." —Alice McDermott, National Book Award winning author of Absolution
About the Author
Elizabeth Poliner is the author of the novel As Close to Us as Breathing, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction and was a finalist for the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in Fiction and the Ribalow Prize. She has also published a poetry collection, What You Know in Your Hands, and a novel-in-stories, Mutual Life & Casualty. Her stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Story, and Colorado Review, among other journals. She lives in Virginia. www.elizabethpoliner.com