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“What Is Visible…illustrates the art of fiction at its best in
presenting the interior. A splendid debut indeed.”
— Ha Jin, National Book Award-winning author
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“What Is Visible is not only
a compelling, deeply moving novel; it is a fully realized work of art. This is
an auspicious debut of an important new writer.”
— Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
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“An astonishing debut that vividly
brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history…Beautiful,
heart-wrenching, and at times quite funny, this book is a marvel.”
— J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author
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“Though she was an internationally renowned figure in the
mid-nineteenth century, Laura has been all but forgotten by history.
Fortunately, Elkins revives this historical figure with a wonderfully
imaginative and scrupulously researched debut novel.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Told in alternating chapters by Laura, Howe, his
poet wife, and Laura’s beloved teacher, this is a complex, multilayered
portrait of a woman who longed to communicate and to love and be loved.
Elkins fully captures her difficult nature and her relentless pursuit of
connection.”
— Booklist
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“[This] strikingly original debut
novel…unfolds against a background rich with progressive
and social causes, from women’s suffrage to abolitionism. What Is Visible marries historical research with lyrical and sometimes
starkly honest writing…a convincing portrayal of a uniquely interior world and
the deeply human need to feel and connect, despite the body’s limitations.”
— BookPage
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“The story of Helen Keller’s forgotten forerunner comes nimbly to life in Elkins’ debut novel…An affecting portrait which finally provides its idiosyncratic heroine with a worthy voice.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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WHAT IS VISIBLE is remarkable at many levels. It is written in an intelligent, intricate style, populated with many true historical figures, and teeming with convincing period details. Above all, the novel has a unique narrative structure, which illustrates the art of fiction at its best in presenting the interior. A splendid debut indeed.
— Ha Jin, National Book Award Winner for Waiting
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I know firsthand how brutally difficult it is to write a creatively rich, humanly revealing novel based on real people in a distant time. Kimberly Elkins does this brilliantly. WHAT IS VISIBLE is not only a compelling, deeply moving novel, it is a fully realized work of art. This is an auspicious debut of an important new writer.
— Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
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An astonishing debut that vividly brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history. You'll recognize many of the characters in WHAT IS VISIBLE, but its heroine, Laura Bridgman, is likely someone you've never heard of. After you read it, you'll never forget her. Beautiful, heart-wrenching, and at times quite funny, this book is a marvel.
— J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Maine and The Engagements
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I found myself slowly mesmerized by WHAT IS VISIBLE, and then increasingly haunted and bound to the story of Laura Bridgman, the second, deeper, darker invisibility of her life so permanently excavated and restored to memory by the talented hand of Kimberly Elkins and her extraordinary powers of imagination. To say that I was profoundly moved by this novel would be an understatement.
— Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
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A wonderfully imaginative and scrupulously researched debut novel... [The protagonist] comes across as a willful, mysterious marvel, showing 'how little one can posses of what we think it means to be human while still possessing full humanity.'
— Publishers Weekly (STARRED)