In Radiant Daughter, Patricia Grossman follows a Czech-American family for twenty-seven years, beginning in suburban Chicago in 1969 and ending in Brooklyn — in seaside “Little Odessa”—in 1996. Though the novel begins as a traditional assimilation story, it evolves into a highly particular and harrowing tale surrounding the descent of Elise Blazek, the family’s brightest star. Radiant Daughter is also a story of translation—between generations, from the Czech of Irena and Stepan to the "American" of the children, and finally to the Russian that is Elise’s academic specialty. Grossman's moving narrative breaks new ground in exploring a dangerous turn in the complex bond between a mother and her adult child.
With great emotional exactness, Radiant Daughter traces out the mystery of illness and the surprises (bright and dark) of family love. Riveting to read, this is a remarkable novel with its own unsentimental suspense.
—Joan Silber, National Book Award Finalist and author of The Size of the World
Radiant Daughter is the absolutely captivating story of a mother and daughter who must teach each other to navigate history and the world. Grossman writes her characters' lives with generosity and depth, and she balances a heartbreaking account of mental illness with a stunning portrait of how we forgive, love, and hold onto our families.
—Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Bejing and Repeat
After Me
Grossman's own radiant magic is her breathtaking story of an immigrant family trying to make sense of their American dream, while the glittering mental illness of their highly promising daughter swirls around them. A gorgeously written novel about the love, yearning, and ache of family, Radiant Daughter is impossible to put down—or forget.
—Carolyn Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble
Patricia Grossman brings to sparkling life a culture in transition in this riveting novel about a Czech immigrant family making its way through the second half of the 20th century. With a brilliant but severely troubled daughter at its center, the novel at times evokes My Antonia, at others The Bell Jar, but Grossman’s exquisitely detailed world is all her own. Radiant Daughter is a wise, wonderful novel that manages to be both heartbreaking and hopeful.
—Kitty Burns Florey, author of Souvenir of Cold Springs and Solos