Lara Tupper

writer crooner yogini fanilow

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novel

OFF ISLAND (coming soon)

based on the life of Paul Gauguin

Memoir

SIX-WORD MEMOIRS on LOVE and HEARTBREAK

debut Novel

A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS

“A one-of-a-kind book, fascinating and honest.”

--Joan Silber, National Book Award nominee, Ideas of Heaven

"Wonderful and incisive, A Thousand and One Nights tells us in a new way what it means to be young and American. Tupper casts a keen, intelligent eye on the contemporary world, its multitude of fakeries and deceits, providing us with a witty, poignant, wholly worthwhile read."— Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout

"This is a moving and accomplished first novel.”
--Jim Shepard, 2007 National Book Award nominee, Like You'd Understand, Anyway

"Both an off-kilter take on the conventional coming-of-age tale and a sly commentary on the underbelly of celebrity culture, this truly original book is basically uncategorizable—blissfully so."--Elle.com

"Funny and insightful and told in prose as resilient as Karla's spirit. Keep an eye on Lara Tupper; she is sure to go far." --Rebecca Oppenheimer, National Book Critics' Circle member

"...shrewdly observed..."--The Boston Globe

"Add [this] title to your must-read list."--The Sacramento Bee

Harcourt published Lara Tupper's debut novel, A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, in 2007. (She is currently adapting this book into a screenplay if you are reading this, Christopher Guest.) Her second novel, OFF ISLAND, is a fictional account of Paul Gauguin's messy marriage. A jazz/pop vocalist, Lara has crooned "Hotel California" in a number of Middle Eastern and Asian cities. She taught writing at Rutgers University for almost a decade and now lives in the Berkshires, where she is composing a memoir about codependence and yoga called MEET, STAY, SHOVE. She still knows all the words to many Eagles songs.

“Lara Tupper’s debut novel… is an enchanting tale of disenchantment – both candid exposé, and quest for a truer self. It draws us into the life of Karla, a hopeful, fresh-out-of-school singer, as she enters the bizarre twilight zone of international hotel entertainment: four hours a night, six nights a week, in cocktail lounges from Abu Dhabi to Shanghai. An easy life, her British partner persuades her. But while he slides through it all on booze, it’s for Karla to experience the full mind-warping effects of a thousand and one nights (give or take) belting out ‘Candle in the Wind,’ and ‘My Heart Will Go On.’

The problem of living even half-honestly in a world of routine cheating and of faked performance is a real one, and gives [this novel] its vital center. Lara Tupper is a writer of many gifts, with a terrific story to tell.” —Judith Grossman, author of What Aliens Think