{"product_id":"florence-in-ecstasy-9781944700171","title":"Florence in Ecstasy","description":"\u003cp\u003eA young woman arrives in Florence from Boston, knowing no one and speaking little Italian. But Hannah is isolated in a more profound way, estranged from her own identity after a bout with starvation that has left her life and body in ruins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe is determined to recover in Florence, a city saturated with beauty, vitality, and food―as well as a dangerous history of sainthood for women who starved themselves for God.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHannah joins a local rowing club and is drawn into Florence's vibrant present: soccer mania, eating, drinking, sex, an insatiable insistence on life. But Hannah is also rapt by the city's past―the countless representations of beauty, the entrenched conflicts of politics and faith, and the lore of the mystical saints, women whose ecstatic searches for meaning through denial illuminate the seduction of her own struggles.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA vivid, visceral debut echoing the novels of Jean Rhys, Elena Ferrante, and Catherine Lacey, Florence in Ecstasy gives us an arresting new vision of a woman's attempt to find meaning―and find herself―in an unstable world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJessie Chaffee was awarded a Fulbright Grant to complete \u003ci\u003eFlorence in Ecstasy\u003c\/i\u003e and was the writer-in-residence at Florence University of the Arts. Her work has been published in \u003ci\u003eThe Rumpus, Slice, Bluestem, Global City Review, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sigh Press\u003c\/i\u003e, among other places. She received her MFA from the City College of New York, and she lives in New York City, where she is an editor at Words Without Borders. Find her at www.JessieChaffee.com\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Unnamed Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50447377236242,"sku":"9781944700171","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_98de82f4-bcf3-4ac4-b4d2-a433c5d848c1.jpg?v=1729713725","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/florence-in-ecstasy-9781944700171","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}