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About Margot : A Novel

A moving portrait of a young woman's struggle to break free of her upper-class upbringing amid the whirlwind years of the sexual revolution. It's the mid-1950s and Margot Thornsen is growing up between a Park Avenue apartment in New York and her family's sumptuous Oyster Bay estate as the presumed heir to her late grandfather's steel fortune. Her domineering mother has charted a course for her—to forego education and marry well—but Margot is more interested in microscopes and beetles and books. When a devastating fire brings the family legacy crashing down and the sexual revolution dawns, a new path opens up—the expansive world of late-1960s Radcliffe College and the intellectual, cultural, and sexual freedom Margot has been reaching for. Hailed for her "intelligent and heartfelt fiction" ( Kirkus Reviews ), Wendell Steavenson writes with grace, precision, and great psychological perception. With Margot , she has crafted a vivid portrayal of the quiet torment of young women of its era, a comically caustic mother-daughter story, and a memorable evocation of one woman's passion for the wonder of science.