A New York Times Notable Book: One woman's search for the value of a long life With the advent of her seventieth birthday, many changes have beset Doris Grumbach: the rapidly accelerating speed of the world around her, the premature deaths of her younger friends, her own increasing infirmities, and her move from cosmopolitan Washington, DC, to the calm of the Maine coast. Coming into the End Zone is an account of everything Grumbach observes over the course of a year. Astute observations and vivid memories of quotidian events pepper her story, which surprises even her with its fullness and vigor. Coming into the End Zone captures the days of a woman entering a new stage of life with humanity and abiding hope.

The moving portrait of a woman stranded in her lonely fame Franny Fuller, blond, buxom, and beguiling, is the sort of woman who harnesses a power that can enthrall a nation. The legendary movie star has captured the imaginations of audiences, men, and columnist Mary Maguire, who is writing her biography. But just who is the human within the celebrity? This is the story of how Fanny Marker from Utica, New York, was transformed into Franny Fuller—a famous actress with a life of private misery. Doris Grumbach takes readers beyond the glamour of the silver screen with this poignant novel of one woman's sad reality.

A New York Times Notable Book: To truly understand herself, Doris Grumbach embraces solitude With a busy career as a novelist, essayist, reviewer, and bookstore owner, Doris Grumbach has little opportunity to be alone. However, after seventy-five years on the planet, she finally has her chance: Her partner has departed for an extended book-buying trip, and Grumbach has been given fifty days to relax, think, and write about her experience. In this graceful memoir, Grumbach delicately balances the beauty of turning one's back on everything with the hardship of complete aloneness. Even as she attends church and collects her mail, she moves like a shadow, speaking to no one. Left only to her books and music in the midst of a Maine winter, she must look within herself for solace. The result of this reflection is a powerful meditation on the meaning of aging, writing, and one's own company—and reaffirmation of the power of friends and companionship.

In her later years, a woman reflects on her marriage, her stifled passions, and her life At age ninety, Caroline Maclaren, widow of the prominent composer Robert Maclaren, finally decides to tell her own story. "Perhaps the time was not right to do it before," she remarks. But now she takes pen to paper, reliving her sheltered girlhood, her chilly marriage to a brilliant man, and—perhaps above all—the melancholy solitude in which she has lived nearly all her life. It was only when her husband fell ill that Caroline found fulfilling companionship with Anna, Robert's caretaker. This masterful tale of loneliness and of passion late in life is widely considered to be Grumbach's finest work. Bittersweet, touching, and profoundly resonant, Chamber Music is captivating.

Doris Grumbach's chilling look at the ways childhood experiences create transformative echoes that last throughout adulthood "I want to lead you all into the ocean to see if you will drown." During the summer of 1929 four children come together and change the course of their lives forever. Caleb and Kate Flowers live an isolated existence with their mother until Lionel Schwartz and Roslyn Hellman come to Far Rockaway for the summer. Roslyn, quickly stepping in as ringleader, dominates the summer's activities, and what appear to be innocent childhood games are actually very real confrontations with the group's most closely held secrets. As the summer progresses, Caleb and Kate's relationship grows from the affectionate love of siblings to something less innocent. The ensuing years will bring profound realizations and undeniable passions for all four as they move through adolescence and grow up. Doris Grumbach's acutely intimate, deeply...

A New York Times Notable Book: A moving glimpse of a life shrewdly examinedExtra Innings follows a year in the life of Doris Grumbach, beginning with the release of her previous memoir and journal, Coming into the End Zone, and revealing that the devoted essayist, novelist, and critic possesses as keen an eye in her seventies as she did when she wrote The Spoil of Flowers thirty years earlier. Grumbach details each passing month and the trials and tribulations therein. Age and experience have tempered her anger, allowing her to view the world in a rosier light than she has before. In this eventful period that concludes with her move from Washington, DC, to Maine, Grumbach travels between signings and speeches, describes her home life in a new state, and deals not only with her own mortality, but with that of her daughter. Grumbach's wisdom and wit endure as she looks back on her own memories, seeing the world as only Doris...

A tender and imaginative retelling of the adventures of two of history's most compelling women In 1778 Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby left County Kilkenny for Wales to live together as a married couple. Both well born, highly educated Irish women, the Ladies of Llangollen, as they came to be known, defied all eighteenth-century social convention and spent half a century together in a loving relationship. Removed from the intrusive gaze of the world, the fictional Eleanor and Sarah retreat to their shared home to study literature and language and enjoy their solitude. In an imagined account, Doris Grumbach brings this gripping chronicle to new audiences. With a keen sense of the rhythms and routines of longtime partnership, Grumbach breathes vivid life into this fascinating story of a passion both shocking and steadfast.

United by chance during their formative years at Barnard College, three women come of age in New York Minna Grant, Maud Noon, and Liz Becker are assigned as roommates during their freshman year at Barnard. The daughter of Communist parents, Liz makes a name for herself as a photographer. Minna, bright and pretty, is an avid swimmer with a promising academic future. And Maud, an unprepossessing scholarship student, catches the eye of the handsomest boy at Columbia and rises to fame as a poet. As the decades pass, each woman lives out her own individual passions, tragedies, and destiny. Grumbach's courageous and nuanced tale of female friendship, coming of age, and New York across the decades is a must-read.