On the night of April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky's twenty-one-year-old sister Kim came home from a bar in downtown Cleveland. She argued with her boyfriend on the phone. Then she took her mother's car keys, went into the garage, and closed the garage door. Her body was found the next morning. Those are the simple facts, but the act of suicide is far from simple. For twenty years, Bialosky has lived with the grief, guilt, questions, and confusion unleashed by Kim's suicide. Now, in a remarkable work of literary non-fiction, she recreates with unsparing honesty her sister's inner life, and the events and emotions that led her to take her life on this particular night. In doing so, she opens a window on the nature of suicide itself, our own reactions and responses to it - especially the impact a suicide has on those who remain behind. Drawing on the works of doctors and psychologists as well as a range of writers from Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson to Sylvia Plath and Wallace Stevens, Bialosky gives us a haunting exploration of human fragility and strength. She juxtaposes the story of Kim's death with the challenge of becoming a mother and her own experience of raising a son. This is a book that explores the families we are born into, the families circumstances give us, and the tender and enduring bonds that keep us connected to the people we love, even after they have left us.

Edward Darby has everything a man could hope for: meaningful work, a loving wife, and a beloved daughter. With a rising career as a partner at an esteemed gallery he strives not to let ambition, money, power, and his dark past corrode the sanctuary of his domestic and private life. Influenced by his father, a brilliant Romantics scholar, Edward has always been more of a purist than an opportunist. But when a celebrated artist controlled by her insecurities betrays him, and another very different artist awakens his heart and stirs up secrets from his past, Edward will find himself unmoored from his marriage, his work, and the memory of his beloved father. And when the finalists of an important prize are announced, and the desperate artists maneuver to seek its validation, Edward soon learns that betrayal comes in many forms, and that he may be hurtling toward an act that challenges his own notions about what comprises a life worth living. A compelling odyssey of a man unhinged by his ideals, The Prize is as well an unflinching portrait of a marriage struggling against the corroding tide of time and the proximity to the treacherous fault line between art and money. Inspired by her work as a poet and the need to preserve a private space for the creation of art, and with language that pierces with longing, passion, and intelligence, The Prize by Jill Bialosky is her most evocative and moving novel yet.

""It is so nice to be happy. It always gives me a good feeling to see other people happy...It is so easy to achieve." "--Kim's journal entry, May 3, 1988
On the night of April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky's twenty-one-year-old sister Kim came home from a bar in downtown Cleveland. She argued with her boyfriend on the phone. Then she took her mother's car keys, went into the garage, closed the garage door. She climbed into the car, turned on the ignition, and fell asleep. Her body was found the next morning by the neighborhood boy her mother hired to cut the grass.
Those are the simple facts, but the act of suicide is anything but simple. For twenty years, Bialosky has lived with the grief, guilt, questions, and confusion unleashed by Kim's suicide. Now, in a remarkable work of literary nonfiction, she re-creates with unsparing honesty her sister's inner life, the events and emotions that led her to take her life on this particular night. In doing so, she opens a window on the nature of suicide itself, our own reactions and responses to it--especially the impact a suicide has on those who remain behind.
Combining Kim's diaries with family history and memoir, drawing on the works of doctors and psychologists as well as writers from Melville and Dickinson to Sylvia Plath and Wallace Stevens, Bialosky gives us a stunning exploration of human fragility and strength. She juxtaposes the story of Kim's death with the challenges of becoming a mother and her own exuberant experience of raising a son. This is a book that explores all aspects of our familial relationships--between mothers and sons, fathers and daughters--but particularly the tender and enduring bonds between sisters.
"History of a Suicide "brings a crucial and all too rarely discussed subject out of the shadows, and in doing so gives readers the courage to face their own losses, no matter what those may be. This searing and compassionate work reminds us of the preciousness of life and of the ways in which those we love are inextricably bound to us.

"""[A] suspenseful tale ... Bialosky explores the idea that needy people are often the most powerful and destabilizing. We're not sure why Eleanor wants to have an affair ... but we believe she does--and with a kind of reckless illogic that would do Tolstoy proud."--"The New York Times" Eleanor Cahn, a professor of literature, wife of a preeminent surgeon, and devoted mother of two, is in Paris to present a paper on "Anna Karenina," A chance encounter brings to the surface passions she has suppressed for years. As "The Life Room "unfolds, we learn the secrets of her erotic past: ethereal William, her high school boyfriend; her role as muse to troubled painter Adam; her marriage to loyal, steady Michael. On her return to New York, Eleanor's charged attraction to another man takes on a life of its own, threatening to destroy everything she has. Jill Bialosky has created a fresh, piercingly real heroine who must choose between responsibility and desire. "Bialosky creates a character brave enough to look back and try to regenerate all the emotional intensity of her younger self. Eleanor Cahn's journey is not just a reawakening, but a reclamation of a vital part of herself long buried under domestic minutiae and the travails of balancing family and career."--"The Boston Globe""" "[Eleanor's] resolute self-destruction, with love the prime weapon, gives this novel the feel of an oncoming train.--"The Los Angeles Times""" A "Chicago Tribune "Favorite Book of 2007 jillbialosky.com JILL BIALOSKY is the author of the acclaimed novel "House Under Snow" and three collections of poetry, "The End of Desire, Subterranean, "and "Intruder. "She is an editor at W. W. Norton & Company and lives in NewYork City.

This first novel by a celebrated American poet is a story of mothers and daughters, of sexual identity, and of a family disintegrating after the premature death of its patriarch. Anna Crane, soon to be married, reflects on her childhood in Ohio during the 1960s and '70s with her two sisters and Lilly, her charismatic, self-destructing mother. Lilly is consumed by memories of her late husband and spends her days dreamily creating paper menageries or preparing for dates with a stream of suitors. Evoking the claustrophobia of small-town life, the novel races toward a chilling conclusion when Anna is betrayed by the two most important figures in her young life.
Not since Alice McDermott's "That Night" has there been such a telling portrait of first love. And not since Mona Simpson's "Anywhere But Here" have we witnessed the destructive, seductive nature of a mother who insists on competing with her children.