Upcoming Event at Perrot: Author Nina Darnton will speak about her latest novel, The Perfect Mother Monday, December 1st, 2014, at 7:30 PM in Perrot’s Children’s Wing
About the Book: When an American exchange student is accused of murder, her mother will stop at nothing to save her. A midnight phone call shatters Jennifer Lewis’s carefully orchestrated life. Her daughter, Emma, who’s studying abroad in Spain, has been arrested after the brutal murder of another student. Jennifer rushes to her side, certain the arrest is a terrible mistake, and determined to do whatever is necessary to bring Emma home. But as she begins to investigate the crime, she starts to wonder whether she ever really knew her daughter. The police charge Emma, and the press leaps on the story, exaggerating every sordid detail. One by one, Emma’s defense team, her father, and finally even Jennifer begin to have doubts. A novel of harrowing emotional suspense, The Perfect Mother probes the dark side of parenthood and the complicated bond between mothers and daughters.
About the Author:
A journalist for thirty years, Nina Darnton wrote her first novel, An African Affair, three years ago and never looked back. As a journalist, Nina has written extensively for The New York Times, mostly about the arts. She wrote the “At the Movies” Column, and frequent celebrity profiles for the Arts and Leisure section as well as movie reviews, Sunday book reviews, and longer articles for the Times Sunday magazine. She has also published in Elle, More, Mirabella, Family Circle, House and Garden and Travel and Leisure. She was chief movie writer for the New York Post and a fashion reporter at Newsweek, travelling to London, Paris and Milan twice a year to cover the shows. She was also a contributor to National Public Radio and an essayist for the McNeill-Lehrer News Hour on public television.With her husband, she has lived and worked in Nigeria, Kenya, Poland, Spain and England and used those experiences and some of those settings in each of her novels. Nina has a BA from the University of Wisconsin with a major in Comparative Literature. She also has an MS in Psychology with a specialty in Child Development from the New School of Social Research and an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Nina is married to the journalist and novelist John Darnton. They have three children and four grandchildren and live in New York City and New Paltz, New York.
When an American exchange student is accused of murder, her mother will stop at nothing to save her. A midnight phone call shatters Jennifer Lewis’s carefully orchestrated life. Her daughter, Emma, who’s studying abroad in Spain, has been arrested after the brutal murder of another student. Jennifer rushes to her side, certain the arrest is a terrible mistake, and determined to do whatever is necessary to bring Emma home. But as she begins to investigate the crime, she starts to wonder whether she ever really knew her daughter. The police charge Emma, and the press leaps on the story, exaggerating every sordid detail. One by one, Emma’s defense team, her father, and finally even Jennifer begin to have doubts. A novel of harrowing emotional suspense, The Perfect Mother probes the dark side of parenthood and the complicated bond between mothers and daughters.