{"product_id":"the-girl-from-dream-city-9780889777859","title":"The Girl from Dream City","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVivid stories from a Canadian literary icon, who shares a life spread across continents and immersed in books.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It’s the life that many dream of: education in some of Europe’s most beautiful cities before becoming a novelist, essayist, translator and literary curator.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But the start of Linda Leith’s journey is anything but idyllic. The daughter of a glamorous mother and a charming left-wing doctor, she is never told of her father’s psychiatric breakdown or his subsequent shock therapy for what was then called manic depression.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As this secret festers, Leith’s father uproots the family to various European cities as he reinvents himself as a corporate executive, eventually moving across the Atlantic to Montreal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It’s there, in her first year of university, that Leith is inspired by Madame de Staël: a writer and salonnière, banished from Paris by Napoleon himself. With none of Staël’s advantages—no wealth, no social status, no château on Lake Geneva—Leith can scarcely imagine a salon, but she is drawn to Paris, and dreams of becoming a writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This dream fuels her education in London, her marriage and writing in Budapest, and—finally—her journey back to Montreal where she meets a community of writers and readers who she works with to transform the city’s literary scene.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As Leith publishes, translates, and curates, she also comes to terms with her troubled father and the secrets of her childhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A luscious read, this book will rivet readers of Jill Ker Conway’s \u003ci\u003eThe Road from Coorain\u003c\/i\u003e and Tara Westover’s \u003ci\u003eEducated\u003c\/i\u003e, or anyone who has dreamed of building a cultural life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Linda Leith","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48273437131003,"sku":"9780889777859","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_672d162e-9097-4cd6-a6dc-203390514fdf.jpg?v=1771015300","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/the-girl-from-dream-city-9780889777859","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}