{"product_id":"astonish-me-9780345804617","title":"Astonish Me","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eGreat Circle \u003c\/i\u003ecomes \"a\u003cb\u003e novel you must read\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eabout a mother who is trying to forget her past as a young ballerina in Paris who fell into a passionate romance with a Soviet dance superstar. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor years Joan has been trying to find peace and satisfaction in her role as wife and mother. Few in her drowsy California suburb know her thrilling history: as a young American ballerina in Paris, she had a doomed affair with Soviet dance superstar Arslan Rusakov. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e After playing a leading role in his celebrated defection, Joan bowed out of the spotlight for good, heartbroken by Arslan and humbled by her own modest career. But when her son turns out to be a ballet prodigy, Joan is pulled back into a world she thought she'd left behind--a world of dangerous secrets, of Arslan, and of longing for what will always be just out of reach. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"The inner lives of [Shipstead's] characters feel as real and immediate as the shifting settings they inhabit: still-gritty mid-1970s Manhattan, shabbily elegant Paris, the sunbaked suburban sprawl of Southern California.\" --\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMAGGIE SHIPSTEAD is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Her first novel, \u003ci\u003eSeating Arrangements, \u003c\/i\u003e was a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebest seller, a finalist for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, and the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50543613018386,"sku":"9780345804617","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_739f91ca-fef6-4987-833e-61527cfa92bf.jpg?v=1731512048","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/astonish-me-9780345804617","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}