Margot Livesey

"From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late 19th century Scotland. Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven farm, Lizzie Craig discovers at a young age that she can see into the future. Her gift of sight is selective -- she doesn't, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family...

Overcoming a life of hardship and loneliness, Gemma Hardy, a brilliant and determined young woman, accepts a position as an au pair on the remote Orkney Islands where she faces her biggest challenge yet.

Celia Gilchrist believes that she has finally found the right man in Stephen, but when she moves in with Stephen and his young daughter Jenny, things begin to go subtly, menacingly wrong. Money disappears, a sweater is ruined, small, common-place lies escalate into awkward confrontations. Livesey's debut novel Homework, now back in print, is a chilling portrait of jealousy and fear, devotion, and the wish to be loved.

Margot Livesey, one-third of the popular team who lead the annual Thalia Book Club discussions with Jennifer Egan and Siri Hustvedt, returns to discuss her first novel since 2012. Mercury is a beautifully crafted emotional thriller, which explores the ways in which relationships can be disrupted and ultimately destroyed by obsession, secrets, and ever-escalating lies. In conversation with author Meg Wolizter (The Interestings). With a reading by Michael...