Tell Me Who We Were

by Kate McQuade

It begins with a drowning. One day Mr. Arcilla, the romance language teacher at Briarfield, an all-girls boarding school, is found dead at the bottom of Reed Pond. Young and handsome, the object of much fantasy and fascination, he was adored by his students. For Lilith and Romy, Evie and Claire, Nellie and Grace, he was their first love, and their first true loss.

In this extraordinary collection, Kate McQuade explores the ripple effect of one transformative moment on six lives, witnessed at a different point in each girl’s future. Throughout these stories, these bright, imaginative, and ambitious girls mature into women, lose touch and call in favors, achieve success and endure betrayal, marry and divorce, have children and struggle with infertility, abandon husbands and remain loyal to the end.

Lyrical, intimate, and incisive, Tell Me Who We Were explores the inner worlds of girls and women, the relationships we cherish and betray, and the transformations we undergo in the simple act of living.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Short Story Collection, Contemporary

208 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2019

About the author

Kate McQuade is the author of the story collection Tell Me Who We Were (William Morrow, 2019) and the novel Two Harbors (Harcourt, 2005). Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Harvard Review, Joyland, LitHub, Memorious, Shenandoah, and TIME Magazine, among others. Her work has been awarded Distinguished Story recognition in Best American Short Stories 2020, the 2019 Essay Prize from American Literary Review, and fellowships and scholarships from MacDowell, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Ucross Foundation, and Yaddo. Born and raised in Minnesota, she holds degrees from Princeton University and the Bread Loaf School of English and teaches at Phillips Academy, Andover, where she lives on campus with her husband and three children.

Learn more about Kate:

Website: www.katemcquade.com
Instagram: @katejmcquade
Twitter: @katejmcquade

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky, strange and original this grouping of connected stories follow the lives of six girls. Pre-teens, these six young ladies are best friends, dramatics the order of the day. Especially after their romance teacher, is found drowned at the bottom of a pond. Trying to figure out what happened, these girls will investigate, try unusual measures and come to a very unexpected collusion.

The following chapters each focus on a specific girl as they go through the various stages of life. They follow the many problems women face throughout their lives, each adding a strange twist or happening. Childbirth, invitro, marriage, divorce, death of a parent, the girls filter in and out of each other's life.

This collection will not appeal to everyone as it is a times difficult to interpret what the author means to say with the different physical manifestation in the stories. If, however, you are looking for something well written and different these stories provide a unique reading experience.

ARC from Library thing.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

No spoilers .... going in blind was how I did it ....and the way I recommend it. Enjoyable!!

Audiobook...
Narrated by: Sarah Naughton, Sophie Amoss, Allyson Ryan, Amy Landon, Gabra Zackman, Caitlin Davies, Hillary Huber

I’ve said this before: I have a thing for stories at boarding schools ( perhaps because our own daughter attended ‘Interlochen’ for High School in Michigan- near Traverse City), years ago.
Boarding schools breathe a life of their own....
They also leave their students with a profound impact in the years to follow.

Kate McQuade, author, grabs our attention immediately - with her first -[interconnected]-story.
Six more stories follow. Each one more engaging than the next. Some quirky...others weepy...but all stories moved effortlessly and seamlessly
through connected stages while emphasizing and strengthening old friendships or forging new one into womanhood.

Six girls find Mr. Arcilla, their romance language teacher, ( at Briarfield, girls boarding school), dead naked - literally dead ‘and’ naked - at the bottom of Reed Pond.
It becomes a defining moment for each of them:
Lilith, Romy, Evie, Claire, Grace, and Nellie.
The girls were in love with their teacher, and it became their first major loss.

The heart of these stories is not just figuring out what happened to Mr. Arcilla - but more about each of the six girls themselves - (interwoven coming-of-age tales as more mature women).

These are beautiful contemporary stories — powerful, touching, heartbreaking, and original.

Kate McQuade conveys real emotion.....the kind that gives you pause....with clear-eyed prose.
These stories undeviatingly examines the depths of love, loss, and hope. Each story has its own tale without focusing on how it would fit into the next… but they do… fit into the next.

Our hearts are not lifted in every story-
these are real people - women - with struggles and tragedies that feel as though they are outside of the girls control....
The stories are short ( I’m being vague with the content purposely)... but each story is to be savored- one by one.
A spell was cast over me —
I’ll be thinking these women for a long time.

Haunting, filled with insights into relationships— wonderful characterization, plot, and writing.

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Arcilla, a language teacher at an all-girls boarding school, has drowned and it has sent his young students spinning. Lilith, Claire, Romy, Grace, Evie and Nellie struggle to find understanding of this loss as Mr. Arcilla was their first true love. They learn that Mr. Arcilla was nude when he was found and that leads them to believe he had been with his lover that evening and they try to work out who that would have been. This defining moment in their young lives will have an effect on them their entire lives.

This is a series of interconnected short stories following the lives of these young girls. The stories are inspired by myths about women. This author is a fearless one and she has her finger on the pulse of what being a woman is all about. Although these women may have led different lives from mine, I recognized each of them in a deep way. She covers all areas of women’s lives – their young girlhoods, their loves, their marriages, their desire and fear of having children, their losses and even a bit of their afterlife.

There is such beauty and magic in this book that I don’t even want to start another book for a few days. I just want this one to sit simmering in my heart for awhile.

This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every story in this beautifully written book. Each one is connected and have something everyone can relate to.

[Angelina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads like Creative Writing class assignment. It tries really hard. While the writing isn't bad, the author goes out of her way to make things a little more complicated than necessary because you know, art. The synopsis makes you believe the death of their teacher impacts their life much more than it really plays out. The short stories aren't really connected. The girls don't really stay in each others lives after the death of the teacher. It was really just stories about women who don't really like their lives, relationships their in, or motherhood or lack of it. Based off the synopsis, the book I read wasn't what was marketed to me and it wasn't really interesting.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mr. Arcilla died. . . Handsome and scruffy and achingly tall. . .He was just out of college. . . to teach twelve-year-old boarding school girls the fundamentals of Spanish and French. . . Spanish then French. . . He never made it to French. . ."

Six twelve-year-old boarding school girls at the precipice of womanhood; all individually in love with their romance language teacher. Their budding pubescent lives firing up and things getting itchy in new places in their bodies. That time in their lives where they all felt daydreams foretold the future; where the difference between reality and imagination is blurred.

Chapter One is a short story entitled, The Translator's Daughter, and is narrated by one of the girls as an older woman. She introduces Lilith, Romy, Evie, Claire, Nellie and Grace and reveals their interpersonal relationships, their individual backstories and their deep individual attraction to their twenty-five-year old teacher, Mr. Arcilla

When his body is discovered floating naked in a nearby pond, the girls are devastated and disconcerted to find themselves alone to sort out the meaning of life and death and to discover that Mr. Arcilla, the kind and patient teacher, did not share their affections. He turned out to be just an ordinary man with individual troubles not unlike themselves. The scars from this event would affect each of them for the rest of their lives. The slender thread of Mr. Arcilla's death is the only thing that remains of their friendships after they leave the halls of Briarfield.

"Mr. Arcilla. Our first real love, our first real loss. We felt it keenly then, as if he had left each one of us. . .without a good-bye. . . Cast aside. Disregarded. Left on our own, alone."

We will again meet Lilith, Romy, Evie, Claire, Nellie, and Grace, featured separately in the next six stories. Each story, a slice from each girls’ future, as inspired by the works of poets and translators famous for myths about women.

The author has done a nice job of maintaining the magical realism revealed in The Translator's Daughter in each of the subsequent stories. To quote the publisher who summarizes it best:

"Throughout these stories, these bright, imaginative, and ambitious girls mature into women, lose touch. . . achieve success and endure betrayal, marry and divorce, have children and struggle with infertility, abandon husbands and remain loyal to the end."

I particularly liked that the book is a short story collection. I savored one each night this week as I wound down my day. Readers of The Night Circus, The Snow Child and Life of Pi will find it appealing.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

{Thank you William Morrow for the finished copy of Tell Me Who We Were.}

Trigger Warnings: Infertility, Miscarriage, Self Harm, Postpartum, Cancer, Suicide Attempt

The death of a beloved male teacher at a girl's boarding school sets in motion the lives of the girls who held him on a pedestal. In short stories, we follow their lives as adults.

Tell Me Who We Were is beautifully written. It's poetic and lyrical and sometimes it went right over my head. Some of the passages are so stunning and striking that I stopped to re-read them; wanting to taste the words over and over.

This book is heavy and deep, so the short story style works well for it. There is no other way to appreciate this book, than to read it in small doses.

To better understand the author's style, I definitely recommend reading the acknowledgements. The author explains her inspiration for the stories, and it makes them easier to comprehend.

This is a beautifully haunting book with a beautifully haunting cover. It is one that I am so happy to have on my shelf to visit again from time to time.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tell Me Who We Were by Kate McQuade is a collection of short stories connected by the thread of characters introduced in the first story, The Translator’s Daughter. In the first story the reader is introduced to 6 girls at a boarding school who experience the tragic death of one of their teachers. The rest of the stories branch off and focus on each girl. The ages and time periods progress with each story coming full circle with the the death of one of the girls as an older woman. McQuade’s writing flows seamlessly and paints a vivid picture the reader can easily visualize. The depth of emotion built into the stories is palpable. Beautifully written, these stories are some of the best I have read. Looking forward to more from this author. #librarything #arc #williammorrow

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Kate McQuade has written a series of short stories that center around a clique of girls, students who attend a school where a male teacher has been found dead. This teacher was unmarried, young and excitingly appealing to the students. To add to the excitement of his death, he is also found nude. This shared event impacts the girls and their individual lives comprise the subsequent stories. Honestly, each chapter is a world of its own: lush, lyrical, almost poetic. McQuade is amazingly talented. This is a fascinating collection of stories and the author is one to watch. I received my copy from the publisher through edelweiss.

[Annez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A loosely connected volume of short stories, beautifully written if overall rather glum, thematically connected by a sort of nature-themed mysticism. Readers looking for a more plot-driven book will be disappointed, but those who enjoy the kinds of short stories found in literary journals will find this the kind of thing they like.

[Jhoanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚📚📚📚

[Norrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and the separate stories, but it did get a little confusing.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost a five-star read for me. I loved the approach to this series of interlinked short stories, and found the prose rich, layered, and poetic. I am eagerly awaiting McQuade’s next book.

[Holly M Wendt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Staggeringly beautiful writing, deftly woven stories.

[Allison Beesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transcendent. Lyrical and haunting and quiet. A must read.

[Diana Iozzia · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Tell Me Who We Were”
Written by Kate McQuade
Review written by Diana Iozzia

Personally, I found myself very confused by this novel. First and foremost, the description tells us that this book is about a young group of female friends at a boarding school. They have an obsession with a handsome, young romantic language professor. Then, he mysteriously is found naked and dead at the bottom of a local swimming pond. So, how did this happen? Why? Well, we are invited to look further and read about the girls as they grow up and where they go from there. The story is told in short stories but they still surround the characters we were introduced to.

I found this book to be nothing like I expected. In the most unfortunate way possible, I felt that the story of the death at the boarding school was a catalyst but not a strong influence on the girls’ lives. They were deeply upset as teens, but the rest of their lives don’t seem to connect for me. I would have thought that each girl would have a different or similar reaction to Mr. Arcilla’s death, but the future perspectives felt insignificant, as if I was reading a completely different book.

We know very little about each girl, just a few short descriptors and the tiniest amount of information to separate them from each other. Still, I had to take notes, because they didn’t really seem like clear and constructed characters. I can suspend a little disbelief, because this book seems as it was written as an ethereal, strange story, but I felt like I just missed every point. I read others’ reviews and think, “I really don’t understand how they came to this conclusion”. The prose and dialogue are interesting, but I still can’t grasp the connections and construct this in my mind. We have characters when they’re young. Then, they’re older. Only one character, Lilith, truly sticks out as a fleshed-out, well-described, and interesting character. She seems to be the only girl who was deeply affected by Mr. Arcilla. She’s the only one with interesting actions, motivation, and anything really. The other girls: Evie, Claire, Romy (who’s kind of interesting), Nellie, and Grace have stories about them that could have been written into many different types of stories.

From the initial description and the positive reviews, I was expecting this book to be similar to “Lolita”, “The Virgin Suicides”, and maybe even “The Life and Death of Sophie Stark”, which is another strange and odd story with young girls going from adolescence throughout their lives. In addition, the shifting perspective and narrative style was jarring. Sometimes, we heard about every girl but in a second person style, then a third person about some of the girls, and then a first person and more. It was just disconnecting.

There was very little I actually enjoyed about this book. Well, Lilith and the lyrical, pretty prose. I was hoping for an introspective, wise novel about young girls and the influence of a tragic event. I didn’t receive that. I read in the author’s notes that many of the short stories were inspired by myths, parables, and fables, but since I was not familiar with any of them or could understand the influence, the book felt completely disjointed and unappealing. I was severely let down by this book, and I cannot recommend it.

I received an advance reader’s edition of this novel from the publisher. Thank you to William Morrow for the opportunity.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

En novellsamling där den första novellen introducerar personer som senare kommer att återkomma i de andra novellerna. Jag gillar tanken mycket, men utförandet känns ibland lite krystat. Novellerna är varierande – vissa har jag svårt att fokusera på och andra fångar mig mera. De ämnen som McQuade tar upp och hur hon behandlar dem överraskar inte speciellt mycket – bortsett från inslagen av magisk realism.

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyrical, magical, tender and powerful. This is a collection meant to be read slowly so you don’t miss any of the super smart and beautiful moments of prose. There are so many small short moments of genius that are easy to miss if you rush through this.

I’m not usually a fan of short story collections but this one is by far my fav.

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and captivating

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, loosely connected and beautifully written. Not light reading, but well worth the effort.

[Brigitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection delves into the lives of each of the girls from the first story, who grow up and become women. Each story felt like iterations of the same woman living different circumstances. They are echoes, facsimiles of each other, made all the more clear as Grace points out in “Ten Kinds of Salt” that she’s making her daughter Hannah, whose best friend Lana is referred to as her twin, in her own image. We return again and again to myths and fairy tales also to realize these are all the same women—Helen, the frog woman, Galatea, Daphne. This book writes about the experiences of white women in a way that is unflinchingly honest and engrossing.

[Lee Woodruff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a short story collection sucker (as noted above) and McQuade’s tales are reminiscent of Karen Russell’s tangled combination of supernatural realism. She explores six girls from first semester at boarding school through to old age, with love, success, betrayal, marriage, infertility, divorce and loyalty. It’s a collection that keeps fanning out like a deck of cards as it touches on coming of age, female transformation and trauma inspired by women in Greek mythology.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contained some of the most beautiful descriptions I have ever read. The writing is almost magical at times, making ordinary objects and feelings extraordinary. It makes girlhood and womanhood mythical. I will be thinking about these stories for a long time to come.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

weird and lovely

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved "Wedge of Swans;" "There Will Be a Stranger;" and "In the Hollow," but reading the author's acknowledgements made me think I missed A LOT of allusions. A fine but not outstanding collection.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wondrous collection of short stories, so beautifully and carefully written.

[Saffron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing and haunting stories!

[Cherie M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky and thought-provoking.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loosely linked, disturbing stories written with startlingly original imagery and style.

[Passant Eltarek · Rating 3 out of 5]

4.5*