Linda Murphy Marshall
MULTI-LINGUIST, MEMOIRIST, ESSAYIST, POET, ARTIST
COMING JULY 2022
Ivy Lodge
A Memoir of Translation and Discovery
Following the deaths of her parents, Linda Murphy Marshall returns to her Midwestern childhood home; in the process of going through each room, she evokes memories and insights from her patriarchal 1960s upbringing, and—informed by her training as a translator—finds new meanings in the often disturbing events that took place in that home.
PRAISE FOR IVY LODGE
“A moving, courageously frank, and sharply intuitive account about a manor filled with memories.”
– Kirkus starred review
“Marshall’s memories still carry a certain pain, even with the passing of time. However, in her collective portrait of Ivy Lodge and those who lived within it, she creates a compassionate whole, narrated in the acquired language of forgiveness.”
“Translation, at its essence, is the rendering of one into another. Murphy Marshall journeys deep into the labyrinth of memory, perception, and the shapeshifting forces of identity. A beautiful debut.”
“Ivy Lodge pulses with the dynamic of family dysfunction and isolation. [Her] exploration of the ostentatious house in which she grew up peels back the layers and brings [it] into brilliantly sharp focus.”
“Using translation of languages to search for the meaning of family relationships, [she] takes the readers on a journey of recollection to understand her parents. [A] story of self-discovery through the language of love, [i]t is an extraordinary book.”
“With carefully crafted narrative, Linda Murphy Marshall has written the next great memoir about her painful and still mysterious childhood. A multi-linguist, Murphy Marshall applies her language skills to translate the dialogue that still echoes.”
“A comfortably white middle-class American family living in the Midwest: what could go wrong? Her memoir takes us deep into the dysfunction of one such family, “translates” parents’ actions into meaning.”
“Ivy Lodge is a brave, beautiful book about the unspoken language of family. Linda Murphy Marshall is unafraid of looking in the dark corners of her childhood home to find meaning, peace, and light.”
