Five Questions

by Kitty Burns Florey

Wynn Tynan, a young woman growing up in rural Maine, has been raised by her accomplished parents to be an artist. When Wynnb s idyllic life takes a brief wrong turn--she becomes pregnant as a teenager--her loving but dominating mother is determined that her goals remain intact, and with reluctance, Wynn gives the baby up for adoption. At art school, she meets Patrick Foss, with his golden eyes, ragged sweaters, and single-minded devotion to his sculpture, and knows she has found the love of her life. But fate intervenes with a tragedy from her past, and Wynnb s life spirals into nightmare. In an effort to make sense of her life--both the horror and the eventual redemption--Wynn asks herself five crucial questions. This novel, written in Wynnb s voice, is her answer to them. There have been many books written about the bond between mother and daughter, but perhaps none so unusual as Five Questions. With the compassion and insight of Wally Lamb and with a strong dose of sagacious wit, Kitty Burns Florey brings us the heartbreaking story of mother love gone wrong, of terrible loss, and of the unexpected blessing of a second chance. As Wy

276 pages, Unbound

First published July 15, 2001

About the author

Kitty Burns Florey is a veteran copyeditor and the author of nine novels and many short stories and essays. Her nonfiction book, Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences, was a National Bestseller that has been called "a wistful, charming, and funny ode to a nearly lost art."

An only child born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Florey attended St. John the Baptist Academy from 1st-12th grades, and this parochial school experience would later inform her nonfiction writing. She has a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Boston University as well as a master's degree from Syracuse University, also in English Literature.

Her most recent nonfiction book, Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, is an exploration of the history of handwriting and a meditation on its modern function in the digital age. It will be released in paperback in September 2013.

Amy Tan called Script & Scribble "[A] book every writer would love, a curio cabinet on the art and act of writing," and The Wall Street Journal praised it as "witty and readable."

Her most recent work of fiction is The Writing Master, a historical novel set in New Haven,CT in 1856, which was inspired by her interest in handwriting history. Praise for the book includes this endorsement from Susan Cheever, author of Louisa May Alcott : "I tore through THE WRITING MASTER in one night. It's a murder mystery, a father-daughter story, and a detailed slice of 19th-century New England history -- lovely!"

Florey is working on a sequel to The Writing Master , set in Amherst, MA, where she now lives.