Amity & Sorrow

"AMITY & SORROW, grace and hope, honor and innocence, bliss and deliverance-all of this from one beautifully nuanced story about the nature of family and the power of faith. I savored every word." (Lori Lansens, author of The Girls).

"A beautiful and terrifying book. Peggy Riley tells a complex and enthralling tale of family love and religious belief with uncommon wisdom, grace, and skill." (Sigrid Nunez, author of The Last of Her Kind).

"Fierce and disturbing.... Riley's debut novel is a harsh but compassionate look at nature vs. nurture through the lens of a polygamous cult." (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)).

"[An] accomplished, harrowing debut.... Riley's descriptive prose is rich in metaphor.... [and] the haunting literary drama simmers to a boil as it deftly navigates issues of family, faith, community, and redemption." (Ann Kelley, Booklist (Starred Review)).

"AMITY & SORROW is a startlingly original, intelligent and beautiful first novel that I found riveting from page one. I can only wait with great anticipation for what comes next from Peggy Riley." (Michael Connelly, author of The Black Box).

"A literary page-turner.... Her writing is clear, crisp, chilling..." (Reader's Digest).

"Fierce and disturbing.... A harsh but compassionate look at nature vs. nurture." (The Washington Examiner).

"Gripping.... a must-read for book lovers." (Ladies Home Journal).

"A powerful book about hope and redemption, as well as the perils of unquestioned belief and obedience." (SheKnows.com).

"[A] shimmering first novel.... This delicately stitched, finely patterned and poetic novel suggests there is a tipping point at which human resilience disappears.... Riley has a gift for metaphor that gives this novel loft, and a rhythmic way of swinging from present to past." (Dylan Landis, New York Times Book Review).

"An accomplished debut novel.... The prose moves easily between past and future, between mother and daughter. Riley possesses a remarkable ability to prettily describe disturbing events; it's abrasive, yet compelling. She examines the complexities of families and the need to belong, how we lie best when we lie to ourselves (well said, Stephen King), and the ability to adapt." (Rory O'Connor, Examiner.com).

"Tense, compelling.... [and] tightly constructed.... Riley constantly surprises the reader with strangely apt metaphors.... The subject matter could easily lend itself to melodrama, but Riley doesn't fall into it. Even the most shocking and violent scenes don't exploit the suffering of the characters; they reveal the complicated reasons for their behavior. Riley strips her story to an almost mythic essence without losing track of the details that ground it in a specific time and place. A sense of imminent danger coexists with an awareness of the possibility of healing, and the tension between horror and hope makes the novel hard to put down." (Margaret Quamme, Columbus Dispatch).