Reviews

“Both the writing and the story have an elevating dignity and presence. . . . Undertow is a fascinating depiction of a woman’s attempts to ‘throw down the pick-up-sticks of her life’ and learn how to play her own game.”

—New York Times Book Review, Notable Book

“This story [has] an elegant power, an integrity of purpose”

—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Before Stegner is finished, you will want to jump into the pages of this beautiful book.”

—Birmingham News

“[Stegner] evinces a fine-tuned sensitivity for complex emotions. . . . [Undertow] is a profoundly insightful, refreshingly honest portrait of dilemmas that will resonate for many women.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Stegner’s narrative is laced with a network of metaphors connecting the moral and natural landscapes, inviting comparison with writers like Margaret Atwood, Jane Smiley, and Barbara Kingsolver. But Stegner speaks with an accent and an energy all her own. Her descriptions of the coastal landscape have the bright bite of the sea air, as do her insights about sexual politics. This novel draws you into its world as irresistibly as its title suggests.”

—Belles Lettres

“Elegant in its language, luminous in its perceptions, unprotected in its candor, Undertow charts the terra infirma of the heart with tremendous power and intimacy. The hard-won clarity and emotional intensity of Lynn Stegner’s fiction set her apart from most contemporary novelists and make this gloriously gifted writer one we ought to be grateful for.”

—Ron Hansen