Aria : A Novel

by Susan Segal

Eve Miller has lost her husband and children and lies in an Australian hospital, wondering if there is anything to live for. Then she accepts an invitation from a flamboyant, aging opera diva to stay at her New York home, and finds herself drawn back into life in ways she never expected. This remarkable debut explores women's relationships, the nature of fame--and the forces that keep us going in the face of heartbreak.

Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

Susan Segal was born in New York and raised in Los Angeles, California.

Segal is the author of the highly praised novel Aria, a Washington Post Fiction List selection. Her short stories have won numerous awards and have appeared or are pending in Redbook, Gravity Pulls You In, Pigeon Pages, Flash Fiction Magazine, Atticus Review, Citron Review, and The Evansville Review, among others, and her feature writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Coast Magazine, Preferred Destinations, and other publications.

She received her MFA in fiction from the University of California at Irvine back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and is Professor in the English Department at The University of Southern California, where she teaches fiction writing, editing and literature,

She currently lives in Orange County, California.

Reviews

[Celine Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book! If you loved Bel Canto, you'll love Aria, which also has opera at its center. Aria is heart-wrenching, uplifting, engrossing. You feel for Eve from the very first page and root for her all the way. It's both beautifully written and a page turner, with an unusual story, compelling characters, and deep emotion. Highly recommended.

[Tiffany Hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written and compulsively readable book that explores grief and the healing power of human relationships, no matter how complicated.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting book that builds to a crescendo, revealing in the end what you wanted to know all along...

[Olivia N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best part was the initial letter responses

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this easy quick read. You do not have to enjoy or know anything about opera music to enjoy this book. It does plunge you into the New York Opera scene with the diva Isabel who takes in Eve after she looses her family during a tragic event at sea. From the beginning I connected with the characters and could feel the distance between Isabel and Eve grow larger and larger. It got a little twisted toward the end. Somewhat of a day time soap opera feel. The choices Eve made through out the book might not have been the best, but we don't know what we would do until confronted with such a situation.

- I did find it strange she called her mom by her first name
- Never really found out if Isabel had it all planned from the beginning or not, which I found unsettling in the end.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aria tells a tale of heartbreak and grief. Humanity shows its compassion after Eve loses her entire family in a boat crash. Yet under certain circumstances compassion can lead to deadlier emotions.