The Writing Circle

They call themselves the Leopardi Circle—six members of a writing group who share much more than their works in progress.

When Nancy, whose most recently published work is a medical newsletter, is asked to join a writing group made up of established writers, she accepts, warily. She's not at all certain that her novel is good enough for the company she'll be keeping. Her novel is a subject very close to her heart, and she isn't sure she wants to share it with others, let alone the world. But Nancy soon finds herself as caught up in the group's personal lives as she is with their writing.

She learns that nothing—love, family, loyalty—is sacred or certain.

In the circle there's Gillian, a beautiful, scheming, world-famous poet; Bernard, a pompous but lovable biographer; Virginia, a respected historian and the peacemaker of the group, who also happens to be Bernard's ex-wife; Chris, a divorced father and successful thriller writer; and Adam, the youngest of the group, an aspiring novelist who is infatuated with Gillian. And then there's Nancy, an unassuming fiction writer embarking on a new chapter in her own life. They meet to read their work aloud and offer feedback. Over the course of a year, marriages are tested, affairs begin, and trust is broken.

Through their complicated relationships, these eccentric characters share their families, their beds, and their histories, and soon find that buried secrets have a way of coming to light. Hearts break and emotions are pushed to the limit in this richly engaging tale of love, betrayal, and literature.

Corinne Demas is the author ofEleven Stories High:

Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948-1968, a memoir; two collections of short stories; a collection of poems; and numerous books for children. She has been the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships as well as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship. A professor at Mount Holyoke College and a fiction editor ofThe Massachusetts Review, she divides her time between Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod. She has belonged to several writing circles.

Publishers Weekly

Nancy Markopolis, a medical newsletter editor working earnestly on a novel inspired by her late, beloved father, is invited into an exclusive Massachusetts writers' group, the Leopardi Circle, by hapless historian Bernard, setting in motion this convoluted tale of professional jealousy and literary theft. What Nancy doesn't realize is that to gain a spot in the circle, her work must be judged worthy by a group that includes, among others, Bernard's novelist ex-wife, Virginia, and the cold but wildly successful poet Gillian Coit. As she gets to know the members of the insular group, including who is sleeping (or not sleeping) with whom, accusations of plagiarism arise and lead to a number of shifting alliances, troubling revelations, and a looming showdown. Demas (Eleven Stories High) offers a dense, intricately detailed Massachusetts literary community populated by characters who appraise each others' relationships and furniture just as harshly as their writing--and with the same assessing smile--but what begins as an arresting study in moral ambiguity, however, ends in a clear-cut revenge plot hobbled by an outsized cast. (July)