The Daughters: A Novel - Hardcover

Adrienne Celt's work has been published in Esquire, the Kenyon Review, the Rumpus, and elsewhere, and she holds an MFA from Arizona State University. Her work has been awarded the PEN Southwest Book Award, an O. Henry Story Prize, and a Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

“In this novel, voice and music and history and storytelling and mythmaking and motherhood and protection of the self are in many ways the same: Living animals, changeable and complex, adaptive and perilous and endlessly powerful.... Here is one you should not miss, a gratifying feast in lush, lyrical, and full-throated form.”
- Carmen Maria Machado, NPR

“After the birth of her daughter, opera sensation Lulu fears a family curse has made her lose her voice, in Celt’s lyrical debut novel about the perplexing riddle of inheritance.”
- Sarah Meyer, O Magazine

“Much of The Daughters is written in a dreamy, mystical key, reminiscent of Alice Hoffman.... I admire the way that Celt’s novel acknowledges the radical shift of motherhood on a lusty, dark note, without agonizing about parenting choices or apologizing for the mother’s creative or sexual needs.”
- Lydia Kiesling, The Guardian

“With prose as star-lit and heart-bending as the story itself, The Daughters demands to be read by every sister, mother, daughter, and friend.”
- Amy Jo Burns, Plougshares

“Celt's family saga―steeped in folklore and vibrating with music―is as much about the power of storytelling as the fraught relationships between mothers and daughters.... A haunting novel with real emotional depth, Celt's psychologically nuanced debut continues to resonate long after the last page has been turned.”
- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“A lyrical and poetic debut about the strength of storytelling and mother-daughter love.”
- Library Journal

“Celt’s debut is a carefully crafted and mesmerizing look at one family’s history.... A beautifully written exploration of the myths and the realities that bind families together that will leave readers eagerly awaiting Celt’s next novel.”
- Booklist

“Celt's writing is lyric, and she paces the novel with careful placement of slow-but-foreboding scenes and sweeping, operatic ones.... The final notes of The Daughters might surprise you, but in the end it''s the journey through song and myth, the cost of motherhood and the price of passion, that will resonate long after the last page.”
- Jenn Fields, Denver Post

“[D]azzling.... Bouncing back and forth between past and present, The Daughters is a gorgeous, riveting story about family, mythology, and curses. Its dark, dizzying magic practically sings off the page.”
- Liberty Hardy, Book Riot

“Adrienne Celt's lushly imagined debut novel The Daughters...explores the themes of music, motherhood, and the unshakeable power of family lore in tandem.... Like the mythical rusalka themselves, The Daughters is packed with dangerous beauty; it's an enchanting but powerful read.”
- Caroline Goldstein, Bustle.com