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The Butterfly Lampshade

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The Butterfly Lampshade

By: Aimee Bender
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
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Told in lush, lilting prose, The Butterfly Lampshade is a heartfelt and heartbreaking examination of the sometimes overwhelming power of the material world, and of a broken love between mother and child.

On the night her mother is taken to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode, eight year-old Francie is staying with her babysitter. Next to the couch on which she’s sleeping, there is a lamp that catches her eye, its shade adorned with butterflies. When she wakes, Francie sees a dead butterfly floating in a glass of water. She drinks it before the babysitter can see.

Twenty years later, Francie is compelled to make sense of that moment, and two other incidents – her discovery of a desiccated beetle from a school paper, and a bouquet of dried roses from some curtains. Her recall is exact: she is sure these things were real. But despite her certainty, she wrestles with the hold these memories have over her, and with what they say about her place in the world. Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction Heartfelt
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Excellent choice for those who want an apt insight into the world of reality seeking of those who live with a mentally ill person. The author really understands how to write about feelings and life.

Excellent choice

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