Joan Chase's During the Reign of the Queen of Persia
First published in 1983 and then apparently forgotten, this has just been reissued, and I'm really glad! Although it's thirty years old, it has a timeless quality to it, and could just have easily been released in the past decade. Narrated in the first person plural, it's the story of four (girl) cousins who live at their grandmother's house (she's the titular Queen), as various other relatives (particularly their five aunts) come and go. It's kind of a coming of age story, and kind of a family epic, and all really wonderful. Gorgeous writing, steeped in nostalgia and wistfulness. A-.
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