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Under her mother's constant scrutiny and lost in the shadow of her famous senator father, Melissa is the third child in the politically prominent Dickenson family, where ambition comes first and Melissa often comes last. In college, she meets Blake, a man of mixed race and apparently unknown parentage. His adoptive parents are lawyers whose defense of death-row cases in the past brought them head-to-head with Melissa's father when he was the governor of Pennsylvania.
While Melissa and Blake's attraction is immediate and fiery, a dangerous secret lurks beneath their relationship -- one that could destroy them ... and their families.
Provocative and beautifully written, and dealing with themes of love, honesty, identity, and the consequences of ambition, The Third Child is a remarkable page-turner.
Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy has published seventeen novels, most recently Sex Wars, from William Morrow Paperbacks, and the republishing of two early novels, Dance the Eagle to Sleep and Vida from PM Press, with introductions by Piercy, and a new collection of short stories, The Cost of Lunch, Etc. She is the author of twenty poetry collections, most recently On The Way Out, Turn Off the Light from Knopf. She published a memoir, Sleeping with Cats and five nonfiction books. Her CD of feminist and other political poems is called Louder, we can't hear you (Yet!). Her work has been translated into twenty-three languages. She has given over 570 readings, speeches, and/or workshops here and abroad. Piercy has been active in feminist, left, and environmental causes since high school. She shares her home on Cape Cod with her beloved Ira Wood and three cats.
More by Marge Piercy
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