PRAISE FOR TRIAL BY FAMILY

“A family and step-family struggle worthy of Shakespeare, a tense courtroom drama, unforgettable characters…Trial by Family kept me up all night! Roselee Blooston is a novelist to follow for years to come.”

~

Alice Elliott Dark,

author of In the Gloaming

“…tense, realistic, and relatable drama about the complicated nature of family, entitlement, money, and love.”

Claudia Larsen, “Earmark These 7 Books for October Reading” Chronogram Magazine

PRAISE FOR TRIAL BY FAMILY

“Roselee Blooston puts characters on the page that are as real and raw as you or I. Trial by Family pairs a trio of adult siblings and their aging father with one heckuva antagonist–a scheming, conniving second wife… Blooston allows the reader a kind of literary eavesdrop…Then, with kindness and wisdom, she gives us hope that we would do as well.”

~

Jenny Milchman,

USA Today bestselling author of Cover of Snow and Wicked River

Trial by Family is Roselee Blooston’s cautionary tale.…Aptly compared to a Shakespearean entanglement, Blooston’s story… is a compelling read.”

–Ann Hutton, Almanac Weekly 10/17/19

PRAISE FOR TRIAL BY FAMILY

Masterfully told through tense courtroom drama and a shifting point of view that gives each player their turn on the stage, Trial by Family explores the complexities, the pitfalls and moments of clarity, that define the web we call love.

Marina Antropow Cramer, author of Roads: A Novel.

Roselee Blooston’s Trial by Family is a devastating tour de force about a family’s slow-motion explosion…Blooston lays it out for us with such insight and compassion––and, at times, humor––that we emerge shaken but wiser…We are thankful it is not our family, yet the power of the story-telling warns us that it very well may be.

Martin Golan, author of One Night with Lilith

 PRAISE FOR DYING IN DUBAI

A Must-Read: my advice is get your eyes on on it immediately. This vivid, vital and deeply touching memoir hits you like a shot in the heart as Blooston describes the sudden death of her husband Jerry in Dubai…and her 15-day struggle to…bring Jerry’s body safely home. It’s a startling, tension-filled tale. What makes it an emotional powerhouse is the way Blooston, a gifted writer, is forced to redefine her marriage from its romantic origins—she and Jerry married at the bus stop where they first met—to the hard truths she learns…after his death. I have no doubt that Hollywood will be eager to put its own stamp on this remarkable story.

~

Peter Travers,

film critic, Rolling Stone

PRAISE FOR DYING IN DUBAI

Roselee Blooston’s beautifully written, brutally honest memoir of endurance and ultimate acceptance of the cataclysmic sudden death of her life’s partner rings truer than any of the many I have read and more movingly than any I could have written. Writing has been a catharsis for Roselee, as it was for me. Here is a helpful and, yes, healthy lesson for surviving the trials and tribulations of widowhood and the essential task of becoming a “new you.” As Roselee put it at the book’s end: “Facing loss opened me up, and I like who I’ve become.”

~

Jane Brody,

New York Times columnist & best-selling author of
Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond

PRAISE FOR DYING IN DUBAI

A gorgeously written, and gripping account of loss and love. Blooston brings to life the glittering city of Dubai, while at the same time letting you into her heart and her marriage. Uplifting and resonant, this book offers solace to anyone who has walked in a loved one’s absence.

~ Claire Bidwell Smith, author of Rules of Inheritance

An achingly touching story

~

Jacqueline Cutler,

book editor, The Star Ledger

PRAISE FOR DYING IN DUBAI

After her husband suffers a life-threatening aneurysm halfway across the globe, Blooston finds herself navigating far more than the emotional dislocations of imminent, then actual, loss. From the moment she lands in Dubai, she must contend with the social dislocations of a country where women—newly bereaved widows included—have no standing. Riveting from start to finish, Blooston’s beautifully written memoir is a truly original contribution to the grief literature.

~

Jill Smolowe,

author of Four Funerals and a Wedding

PRAISE FOR DYING IN DUBAI

Incredibly clear-eyed and composed, yet candid account of a life, a marriage, a love, a family, and a tragic death and its aftermath

-Eric Levin, deputy editor, New Jersey Monthly Magazine

Life’s darkest events can ignite brilliant writing…It’s hard to imagine a tenser journey than the one in this riveting memoir’s opening pages.

~

Nina Shengold, Book Editor, Chronogram (10/16)

PRAISE FOR DYING IN DUBAI

A timely, honest, heart-wrenching marriage memoir, from love at first sight to sudden widowhood in a foreign culture. As she struggles with grief, panic, family conflicts, misogynist bureaucrats, financial insecurity and disturbing revelations, Roselee Blooston stands up for herself—and emerges transformed.

~

Jacqueline Lapidus,

co-editor of The Widows’ Handbook:
Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival

 

Roselee Blooston is the author of the novel TRIAL BY FAMILY, a 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal Winner and the memoir DYING IN DUBAI,  a 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Winner, and a 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, and in 2022, THE CHOCOLATE JAR AND OTHER STORIES and ALMOST: MY LIFE IN THE THEATER––all published by Apprentice House Press, Loyola University MD. Her plays have been produced in New York, across the country, at the Edinburgh Festival, and over Voice of America, and her short stories, essays, and articles have been published in national magazines, journals, and anthologies. She lives,  teaches, and works as a private editor in New York’s Hudson Valley.

PRAISE FOR TRIAL BY FAMILY

“A family and step-family struggle worthy of Shakespeare, a tense courtroom drama, unforgettable characters…Trial by Family kept me up all night! Roselee Blooston is a novelist to follow for years to come.”

~

Alice Elliott Dark,

author of In the Gloaming

“…tense, realistic, and relatable drama about the complicated nature of family, entitlement, money, and love.”

Claudia Larsen, “Earmark These 7 Books for October Reading” Chronogram Magazine

“Roselee Blooston puts characters on the page that are as real and raw as you or I. Trial by Family pairs a trio of adult siblings and their aging father with one heckuva antagonist–a scheming, conniving second wife… Blooston allows the reader a kind of literary eavesdrop…Then, with kindness and wisdom, she gives us hope that we would do as well.”

~

Jenny Milchman,

USA Today bestselling author of Cover of Snow and Wicked River

Trial by Family is Roselee Blooston’s cautionary tale.…Aptly compared to a Shakespearean entanglement, Blooston’s story… is a compelling read.”

–Ann Hutton, Almanac Weekly 10/17/19

Masterfully told through tense courtroom drama and a shifting point of view that gives each player their turn on the stage, Trial by Family explores the complexities, the pitfalls and moments of clarity, that define the web we call love.

Marina Antropow Cramer, author of Roads: A Novel.

Roselee Blooston’s Trial by Family is a devastating tour de force about a family’s slow-motion explosion…Blooston lays it out for us with such insight and compassion––and, at times, humor––that we emerge shaken but wiser…We are thankful it is not our family, yet the power of the story-telling warns us that it very well may be.

Martin Golan, author of One Night with Lilith

A Must-Read: my advice is get your eyes on on it immediately. This vivid, vital and deeply touching memoir hits you like a shot in the heart as Blooston describes the sudden death of her husband Jerry in Dubai…and her 15-day struggle to…bring Jerry’s body safely home. It’s a startling, tension-filled tale. What makes it an emotional powerhouse is the way Blooston, a gifted writer, is forced to redefine her marriage from its romantic origins—she and Jerry married at the bus stop where they first met—to the hard truths she learns…after his death. I have no doubt that Hollywood will be eager to put its own stamp on this remarkable story.

~

Peter Travers,

film critic, Rolling Stone

Roselee Blooston’s beautifully written, brutally honest memoir of endurance and ultimate acceptance of the cataclysmic sudden death of her life’s partner rings truer than any of the many I have read and more movingly than any I could have written. Writing has been a catharsis for Roselee, as it was for me. Here is a helpful and, yes, healthy lesson for surviving the trials and tribulations of widowhood and the essential task of becoming a “new you.” As Roselee put it at the book’s end: “Facing loss opened me up, and I like who I’ve become.”

~

Jane Brody,

New York Times columnist & best-selling author of
Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond

A gorgeously written, and gripping account of loss and love. Blooston brings to life the glittering city of Dubai, while at the same time letting you into her heart and her marriage. Uplifting and resonant, this book offers solace to anyone who has walked in a loved one’s absence.

~ Claire Bidwell Smith, author of Rules of Inheritance

An achingly touching story

~

Jacqueline Cutler,

book editor, The Star Ledger

After her husband suffers a life-threatening aneurysm halfway across the globe, Blooston finds herself navigating far more than the emotional dislocations of imminent, then actual, loss. From the moment she lands in Dubai, she must contend with the social dislocations of a country where women—newly bereaved widows included—have no standing. Riveting from start to finish, Blooston’s beautifully written memoir is a truly original contribution to the grief literature.

~

Jill Smolowe,

author of Four Funerals and a Wedding

Incredibly clear-eyed and composed, yet candid account of a life, a marriage, a love, a family, and a tragic death and its aftermath

-Eric Levin, deputy editor, New Jersey Monthly Magazine

Life’s darkest events can ignite brilliant writing…It’s hard to imagine a tenser journey than the one in this riveting memoir’s opening pages.

~

Nina Shengold, Book Editor, Chronogram (10/16)

A timely, honest, heart-wrenching marriage memoir, from love at first sight to sudden widowhood in a foreign culture. As she struggles with grief, panic, family conflicts, misogynist bureaucrats, financial insecurity and disturbing revelations, Roselee Blooston stands up for herself—and emerges transformed.

~

Jacqueline Lapidus,

co-editor of The Widows’ Handbook:
Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival

 

Roselee Blooston is the author of the novel TRIAL BY FAMILY, a 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal Winner and the memoir DYING IN DUBAI,  a 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Winner, and a 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, and in 2022, THE CHOCOLATE JAR AND OTHER STORIES and ALMOST: MY LIFE IN THE THEATER––all published by Apprentice House Press, Loyola University MD. Her plays have been produced in New York, across the country, at the Edinburgh Festival, and over Voice of America, and her short stories, essays, and articles have been published in national magazines, journals, and anthologies. She lives,  teaches, and works as a private editor in New York’s Hudson Valley.