The Deeper, The Bluer

About the Book

In this remarkable debut novel set in San Diego, 16-year-old Claire thinks she is pregnant and imagines that being a mother would be cool. As spring turns into summer, she learns all about motherhood---especially what it's like being a single mother---and the depths and joys of life resonate around a turquoise, community pool. Claire's mama, Virginia, is HIV positive, way too loud, and on an unusual quest. Claire's boyfriend’s mother, Molly, a poetic soul, has left behind a world of spousal abuse in Seattle. Renata, another mother, is an elegant, New York lawyer who watches her picture-perfect life come undone. And Dorie, a wild would-be writer and young mother, seeks to feel something at whatever cost. Until the unspeakable happens.

Like The Joy Luck Club, Waiting to Exhale and How To Make An American Quilt, THE DEEPER, THE BLUER is about the friendship between women, about mothers and daughters, about celebration and loss. It also reveals the aching desire of a teenage girl to save her mother, make sense of her world, to love and be loved. As Claire says, "Real love must be the tightest sucking in of breath, a hold so pure and blue, the deepest blue you can imagine." An unforgettable and moving story from a writer with great promise.

About the Author

Barbara Field won the Lenore Marshall and Van Rensselaer Prizes for writing from Barnard College and Columbia University. She wrote and edited for CBS, Scripps, Harcourt Brace, and advertising agencies. She has published in Salon, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, and other publications. A single mother, she lives in southern California with her son.