The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe by Betsey Osborne - ISBN: 9780312342784
Paperback
" Betsey Osborne … has pulled off an astonishing feat. She ‘ s written a compelling, elegant tale of nuance and loss with the confidence of a fiction veteran. " — The Philadelphia Inquirer & nbsp; " Osborne writes effortlessly and wisely, plumbing the trouble…

The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe

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  • Paperback

    240 pages

  • Release Date

    1 July 2007

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Summary

Uncas Metcalfe is a 65-year-old botany professor from a once prosperous central New York town, whose habitat is changing much too quickly: his wife is ill, his daughter has returned home, and memories of an almost-forgotten infidelity have resurfaced. Uncas is rooted in a life of plants and manners. When his routine is up-ended by the menacing demands of a former student, Uncas finds his comfortably obstinate nature at odds with his family’s growing impatience and a newfound, terrifying uncertainty.The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe follows an unforgettable hero as he struggles to right himself and adapt to changing expectations, even as he approaches the end of his life. Beautifully wrought and wonderfully imagined, the Metcalfe family will linger in your imagination long after the last page.

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780312342784
ISBN-10:0312342780
Author:Betsey Osborne
Publisher:Griffin Publishing
Imprint:Saint Martin's Griffin,U.S.
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:240
Edition:1st
Release Date:1 July 2007
Weight:292g
Dimensions:127mm x 191mm
A-Format
The Natural History of Uncas Metcalfe by Betsey Osborne - ISBN: 9780312342784
127 × 191 mm
B-Format
C-Format
A4
mm / in
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Writing with the precise and haunting tones of Virginia Woolf, Betsey Osborne creates a compelling a world … Uncas Metcalfe is a character for the ages.

“Betsey Osborne … has pulled off an astonishing feat. She’s written a compelling, elegant tale of nuance and loss with the confidence of a fiction veteran.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Osborne writes effortlessly and wisely, plumbing the troubled depths of the seemingly unruffled surface of ‘ordinary’ life… . This is an auspicious debut by a new and very promising writer.” –The Providence Journal

”[A] graceful minuet of a novel … Osborne’s concerns are gratifyingly complex, the predicaments she orchestrates unusual and suspenseful, her humor lithe, and her insights are keen and provocative.” –Booklist

“Writing with the precise and haunting tones of Virginia Woolf, Betsey Osborne creates a compelling a world … Uncas Metcalfe is a character for the ages.” –Stephen J. Dubner, author of the New York Times bestseller Freakonomics

About The Author

Betsey Osborne

Betsey Osborne graduated from Harvard, attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and has a master of fine arts from Columbia. She has worked at Grand Street, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. She lives in Cranston, Rhode Island. You can visit the author’s website at

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