Joan Chase

“Moving, unusual and accomplished . . . During the Reign of the Queen of Persia is a Norman Rockwell painting gone bad, the underside of the idyllic hometown, main-street, down-on-the-farm dream of Middle America.” —Margaret Atwood, The New York Times

“During the Reign of the Queen of Persia offers an exoticism of the emotions and daily life exhilarated with the richness and evocativeness of poetry. It is also one of the few contemporary novels of women’s lives for which one need make no allowances, grant no compromised sympathy. Joan Chase hasn’t any message of visible politics, simply an artist’s passion for rendering reality accurately, a love of the tactile world, of sensual experience, and a willingness to confront, without resolving, her characters’ grievous ambiguities . . . Splendid and durable.” —The Washington Post Book World

“There are several ways of interpreting Joan Chase’s remarkable first novel: as a romantic saga about life back on the farm; as the struggle of three generations of women against the forces of life and men; as an accomplished grouping of family portraits. But this is one of those books that can’t be characterized solely in terms of plot or thematic content, and one must emphasize the writing itself—not everyone can write this kind of prose. It is made of rhythms, images and metaphors that involve both sense and spirit and allow the reader, through the narrator, to experience a tone of the keenest excitement and awe.” —Chicago Tribune [on During the Reign of the Queen of Persia]

“The publication of her stunning first novel, During the Reign of the Queen of Persia, announced Chase as a brilliantly talented writer. This second book confirms her virtuoso skill with language; nearly every sentence startles with dazzling imagery and poignant insight . . . this is a magnificently involving, imaginative and memorable novel, a portrait of a family painted in vivid, indelible colors.” —Publishers Weekly [on The Evening Wolves]