How to Write a Novel: A Novel

Aristotle “Aris” Thibodeau is twelve-and-a-half years old and destined for greatness. Ever since her father's death, however, she's been stuck in the small town of Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane's floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor, not to mention coparenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money.

Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out in Write a Novel in Thirty Days!, she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the mom character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life-as in great literature-things might not work out exactly as planned.

How to Write a Novel is a brilliant satire of the modern family, at once endearing, hilarious, and bittersweet.

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How to Write a Novel: A Novel

Aristotle “Aris” Thibodeau is twelve-and-a-half years old and destined for greatness. Ever since her father's death, however, she's been stuck in the small town of Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane's floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor, not to mention coparenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money.

Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out in Write a Novel in Thirty Days!, she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the mom character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life-as in great literature-things might not work out exactly as planned.

How to Write a Novel is a brilliant satire of the modern family, at once endearing, hilarious, and bittersweet.

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How to Write a Novel: A Novel

How to Write a Novel: A Novel

by Melanie Sumner

Narrated by Katie Schorr

Unabridged — 7 hours, 43 minutes

How to Write a Novel: A Novel

How to Write a Novel: A Novel

by Melanie Sumner

Narrated by Katie Schorr

Unabridged — 7 hours, 43 minutes

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Overview

Aristotle “Aris” Thibodeau is twelve-and-a-half years old and destined for greatness. Ever since her father's death, however, she's been stuck in the small town of Kanuga, Georgia, where she has to manage her mother Diane's floundering love life and dubious commitment to her job as an English professor, not to mention coparenting a little brother who hogs all the therapy money.

Luckily, Aris has a plan. Following the advice laid out in Write a Novel in Thirty Days!, she sets out to pen a bestseller using her charmingly dysfunctional family as material. If the mom character, Diane, would ditch online dating and accept that the perfect man is clearly the handyman/nanny character, Penn MacGuffin, Aris would have the essential romance for her plot (and a father in her real life). But when a random accident uncovers a dark part of Thibodeau family history, Aris is forced to confront the fact that sometimes in life-as in great literature-things might not work out exactly as planned.

How to Write a Novel is a brilliant satire of the modern family, at once endearing, hilarious, and bittersweet.


Editorial Reviews

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sumner brings a knowing, tongue-in-cheek sparkle to discussions of writing workshop chestnuts…never losing sight of the humanity of her characters and the unpredictable nature of reality.”

Kirkus Reviews

How a kid can help her broke, widowed, overwhelmed mom: write a novel!…Sweet, clever, and fun.”

author of Life after Life Jill McCorkle

A beautiful and accomplished novel by an extraordinarily gifted talent.”

Library Journal

In the vein of Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project, Sumner’s quirky story about an unconventional family is charming and precocious, like Aris herself.”

From the Publisher

"In the vein of Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project, Sumner's quirky story about an unconventional family is charming and precocious, like Aris herself." —Library Journal

“[A] tour de force. . . . Sumner brings a knowing, tongue-in-cheek sparkle to discussions of writing workshop chestnuts . . . never losing sight of the humanity of her characters or the unpredictable nature of reality.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“I have long been an admirer of Melanie Sumner's fiction—the fierce wit and sharp intelligence and trained eye when locating the pulse of compassion—and How To Write A Novel, her brilliant new novel, offers all this and more.  I love the narrator, Aris Thibodeau, twelve-and-a-half going on eternal, and I love the references to writing—the parallels to real life that lead to those moving moments that cannot be edited.  A beautiful and accomplished novel by an extraordinarily gifted talent.” Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life       

"If someone were going to make a novel out of your no doubt complicated life, you'd definitely want your narrator to be Aristotle Thibodeau, the precociously wise (though never annoyingly so) tell-it-all behind Melanie Sumner's hilarious and warm-hearted novel." —Will Blythe, editor of Why I Write and author of To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever

"Sweet, clever, and fun." —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169749878
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date: 08/04/2015
Edition description: Unabridged
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