Publisher Description
At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she's different: she possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of earthlings. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. But at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she's not alone? A blazing novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life in our universe, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a remarkable evocation of feeling in exile at home and introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.
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About Marie-Helene Bertino
Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of Parakeet, 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, and the story collection Safe as Houses. She was the 2017 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow in Cork, Ireland. Her work has received the O. Henry Prize, Pushcart Prize, Iowa Short Fiction Award, and the Mississippi Review Story Prize, as well as fellowships from MacDowell, Sewannee, and New York City’s Center for Fiction and has twice been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts. Formerly the associate editor of One Story and Catapult, she now teaches at New York University, The New School, and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
About Andi Arndt
Andi Arndt is a professional voice actor, the winner of a 2017 Audie Award for Best Romance, and winner of two Earphones Awards.