for ABUNDANCE: "If you read one book about Marie Antoinette, let it be Sena Jeter Naslund's gripping, gabby and beautifully poignant novel . . . . Naslund's writing is sumptuous and personal, and she manages to make the most remote of subjects-an 18th-century French queen-relatable to modern times. You know how the story ends. But the journey is so abundant with joy, grief and all those ordinary events that make up our lives, you'll lose your head reading about it."    --  USA Today "Naslund's writing is opulent and fabulous, as encrusted with detail as one of Marie's shimmering dresses, and the story itself is a complete page-turner which is no small feat given that its ending is known all along. Grade: A"    -- Entertainment Weekly "In this exceptional tale that takes the form of a memoir... Naslund paints a richly detailed portrait of an opulent, turbulent time, revealing the Queen's journey -- from frivolity to responsibility, and from palace to prison cell -- to be one of striking beauty and terrible loss."    --  People (four-star rating) "Naslund commands historical details to portray the world's most extravagant palace in all its dazzling splendor and inane ceremony."    --  Washington Post "The novel is abundant, full of color and detail...An engaging portrait of one of history’s bright-colored butterflies."    -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "The scholarship in this novel is so in-depth that it could be used for a history class... and her writing shows why she's at the top of her career." -- Birmingham News "'Abundance,' Sena Jeter Naslund's retelling of the life of Marie Antoinette, is a delightful confection ... Like a fabulous party, the story is fun into the wee hours, delightful in the retelling, and deadly at the end when reckoning comes. "    --  San Diego Union-Tribune "Scrupulously researched and vividly presented…it's an irresistible story, and Naslund handles its big moments…with impressive assurance. Naslund has done her homework, and imagined her complex, bewitching protagonist in persuasive depth and detail. The result is an exemplary historical novel. "    -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Hypnotically intimate…With vivid detail and exquisite narrative technique, Naslund exemplifies the best of historical fiction, finding the woman beneath the pose, a queen facing history as it rises up against her."    -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Lush with description and deep with historical detail...Marvelous."    -- Library Journal (starred review) "The author of the ambitious Ahab's Wife has tackled another fictional challenge…endowing Marie Antoinette with an artist's sensibility… through her eyes the French court and its extraordinary artifice and luxury come alive. Readers of serious historical fiction will revel in it."    -- Booklist, (Starred Review) "The author's greatest triumph is not only in painting an intimate portrait of the queen, or of life at Versailles, but in weaving a narrative so absorbing that this reader stayed up late into the night-even knowing the ending-in the hope that it all might turn out differently. Bravo to Ms. Naslund: She has penned another fabulous bestseller."    -- Historical Novel Reviews, Editor's Choice for FOUR SPIRITS: "A stirring popular novel that vividly conveys the everyday texture and moral significance of a movement that permanently changed American society."    -- Los Angeles Times (named a Best Book of 2003) "Filled with the fear Naslund witnessed, the characters in her new novel, Four Spirits, come to life ....Naslund succeeds splendidly in making history a page-turner."    -- USA Weekend "A major novel of great cultural and historical importance."    -- Louisville Courier Journal "This is a brave and multifaceted book, propelled by a mission, and ...it is a page-turner."    -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "A panorama of the social landscape of the Deep South during its violent crucible of change. Naslund ...writes with a deep, instinctive compassion for the South's tragic heritage of racial hatred, and an understanding of the high toll paid by people committed to justice. In it's authentic, balanced evocation of daily life across a wide spectrum of the black and white communities, this novel ...credibly renders the faith and courage that brought redemption to a blood-soaked city ...[A] faithful and moving evocation of the city and the era [that] pays off in stunning scenes, vivid with action, color and emotion."    -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This is a wonderful, wonderful novel. Because it takes a huge, loud story and tells it quietly with a throng of characters, most of them important only to themselves and each other, going through their little lives pursuing the things that matter ...[Naslund] has blown a deep breath of life into Four Spirits, and I would not want it to billow one word less."    -- Detroit Free Press "Crisp, insightful writing."    -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Naslund's insight and craftsmanship ensure that Four Spirits makes significant advances in filling ‘the gap in the landscape of American fiction' with a comprehensive ...endeavor to capture the complexities and cultural nuances of the times, and to consider, from many perspectives, the spirit of the struggle."    -- San Diego Union-Tribune "A stunning work of fiction.…Everyone should read this book."    -- Lexington Herald-Leader "Naslund blends her multiple perspectives with carefully observed details to make a grand historical mosaic."    -- Boston Herald "Naslund manages to make a wide array of complex characters evolve in an action-packed novel ...FOUR SPIRITS is a pleasure to read because it is so well-wrought ...a substantial, meticulously constructed novel."    --  St. Louis Post-Dispatch for AHAB'S WIFE: "An intense treat, powerfully written, Ahab's Wife is one of the best contemporary novels I have read in years."    -- Louise Erdrich "Beautifully written. Lyrical...alluring and wise."    -- Los Angeles Times "This is truly a grand...adventure story whose heroine survives on her intellect and courage."    -- Newsday Line up the literary prizes. Rendered in language both lush and luminous, Ahab's Wife is sustenance for the mind and soul.    -- Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is True "Ahab's Wife is a worthy female companion to Moby-Dick and a tour de force in its own right."    -- Gail Godwin, author of Evensong