After losing her husband and daughter in an auto accident, 42-year-old Emma flies to Paris, discovers she has a twin brother whose existence she had not known about, and learns that her birth parents weren't the Americans who raised her, but a White Russian film star of the 1920s and a French Stalinist. A story about identity and the shaping function of art, My Life as a Silent Movie presents a vividly rendered world and poses provocative questions on the relationship of art to life.
After a tragic loss, an American woman investigates her birth family in Paris: "The novel's twists and turns are wonderfully unexpected" (Emma Straub, author of Modern Lovers).
In her early forties, Emma has recently lost her husband and daughter to a tragic auto accident. When her elderly aunt visits her Indiana home to provide comfort, and instead blurts out the news that Emma was adopted, a new kind of shock sets in.
Soon, a still-mourning Emma finds herself flying to Paris, where she will discover the twin brother whose existence she never knew about, and the identity of her birth parents-a White Russian film star of the 1920s and a French Stalinist. A story about identity and the relationship between art and life, My Life as a Silent Movie is "a beautiful, evocative novel [that] melds the magic of old movies with the redemptive power of family" (Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise).
"In this sharply drawn chronicle of grief, a woman reassembles her identity through her father's art and her brother's tenuous offer of a new life . . . Kercheval delves deeply into the rawest of emotions and the most wrenching of choices, richly detailing each twist and turn with grace." -Kirkus Reviews
