"When she refused me," Charlie says at his trial. "Well, I had that gun. What else was I to do?" Lawrenceville, Illinois, 1952: Jean De Belle, the new high school librarian, is eager to begin the next phase of her young life after breaking off her engagement to Charlie Camplain. She has no way of knowing that in a few short hours, Charlie will arrive at the school, intent on convincing her to take back his ring. What happens next will reverberate through the lives of everyone who crossed paths with Charlie and Jean: the hotel clerk who called him a cab, the high school boy who became his getaway driver, and the English teacher who was Jean's landlady, her confidant, and perhaps more. Based on a true crime and ideal for readers of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers and Elizabeth Strout's beloved Anything Is Possible, Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin's Yours, Jean is a powerful novel about small town manners and the loneliness that drives people to do things they never imagined.

National galley mailing, with an emphasis on major national review outlets that have previously covered Lee's work, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Washington Post, and more Author tour including Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, and New York Festival and conference appearances, including AWP, the Ohioana Book Festival, BEA, and Printers Row Outreach to MIBA and GLIBA, with nominations aimed at a Midwest Connections and Great Lakes Great Reads pick Targeted galley mailing and outreach to author's local papers, including The Columbus Dispatch, The Sumner Press, The Lawrenceville Daily Record, The Olney Daily Mail, The Vincennes Sun-Commercial, and Columbus Alive Targeted bookstore mailing with Indie Next ambitions to Politics & Prose, Left Bank, Grammercy Books, Prairie Lights Books, Square Books, and Excelsior Bay Books Targeted galley mailing to review outlets that previously covered Lee's work and have strong connections to the press, including PopMatters, Alternating Current, Crazyhorse, The Coachella Review, Electric Lit, Lit Hub, Poets & Writers, Largehearted Boy, The Medium, Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Barrelhouse, Shelf Awareness Blurb requests out to Richard Ford, Andre Dubus III, Margot Livesay, Jacqueline Mitchard, Bernice McFadden Book club outreach University reading series promotion and course adoption push Major awards push, including the The Ohioana Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award Electronic galleys available on Edelweiss

About the Author
Lee Martin is the author of five novels, including The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. He has also published three memoirs and two short story collections, most recently The Mutual UFO Network, in addition to the craft book, Telling Stories. He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. He teaches in the MFA Program at The Ohio State University.

Reviews
"Martin creates a subtle and intricate portrait of small-town mores and of the after echoes and reverberations, for those who've witnessed it, of sudden, shocking violence." -Kirkus Reviews "Based on the 1952 murder of Georgine Lyons, Martin's latest novel explores the crime and its repercussions. ... Each of those affected narrates her or his own perspective on the story, and the ensemble paints a rich picture of a crime, societal expectations, and the painful echoes in a small town that feels universal." -Booklist "Like his highly acclaimed The Bright Forever, Lee Martin's latest novel, Yours, Jean, is based on a true crime. And, like that earlier narrative, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, the interplay of rich details and raw emotions that Martin so masterfully unfolds in his latest novel makes you ache for the lonely men and women he tenderly brings to life in this powerful story about a murder and the lasting impact it has on a close-knit community." -Linda Kass, Gramercy Books "Fantastic...Martin expertly weaves one storyline with another, and despite the many threads and characters, all remains clear. I read it in one sitting!...Highly recommended reading!" -Defrosting Cold Cases "Written with a deep and wide-ranging compassion that is rare these days, Yours, Jean is a mesmerizingly beautiful novel. Whether he is writing from the point of view of a lonesome middle-aged mother, or a young woman beginning her life with expectant joy and wonder, or a confused teenage boy or girl, or men and women trying to find themselves in any way they can, even if that means harming another, Lee Martin evokes them all with a breathtakingly poetic grace that penetrates the essential mystery of what it means to be human. Lee Martin is a master, and Yours, Jean is one of the finest novels I've read in years." -Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog "Readers expect either a true-crime page turner or a literary novel of exquisite prose-unless Lee Martin is doing the writing, and then they get both. In Yours, Jean ancient passions burn through the facade of small-town grace in a story that simply won't let go, as Lee Martin proves again why he is one of the most gifted writers of our time." -Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean


Awards
Short-listed for Pulitzer Prize 2006 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781950539147
Author Lee Martin
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Dzanc Books
Publisher Dzanc Books