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Bar Fridman-Tell on her novel 'Honeysuckle'

Credit: Julie Riemersma

Inspired by the Welsh myth of the Blodeuwedd—a woman who is created entirely using flowers and plants—author Bar Fridman-Tell set out to create her own version of the story in her debut novel Honeysuckle. The book opens with two siblings, a sister and brother named Wynne and Rory, who are several years apart. Frustrated by his endless demands to play, Wynne crafts a playmate for Rory, a Blodeuwedd which Rory names Daye. As Rory grows up, and Daye is recrafted and renewed each season, the power dynamic between the two shifts and begins to take a more sinister turn, because Daye, as a Blodeuwedd, must always do what her creator requests.

Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell was published by Bloomsbury.

Kate Layte is the founder and owner of Papercuts Bookshop in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Mass. Here are her recommendations:

  • Work to Do by Jules Wernersbach
  • Shut Up and Read by Jeannine A. Cook
  • Early Work by Andrew Martin
  • Down Time by Andrew Martin
  • Cool for America: Stories by Andrew Martin
  • Travels with Casey by Benoit Denizet-Lewis
  • You’ve Changed by Benoit Denizet-Lewis
  • Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald
  • American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac Fitzgerald
  • Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
  • The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw
  • People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much by Sofi Stambo
  • Patient Female by Julie Schumacher
  • American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
  • Ply by Hernan Diaz
  • Northwoods by Daniel Mason
  • Country People by Daniel Mason
  • Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
  • The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar
  • Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias
  • The Given World by Melissa Harrison
  • The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams
Kate Layte's Book Recommendations.mp3

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Editors: Lu Anne Stephens & Haley Crowson
Producer: Haley Crowson
Theme Music: Torin Andersen
Host: Beth Golay

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Beth Golay is KMUW's Director of Marketing and Digital Content. She is the host of the KMUW podcast Marginalia, co-host with Suzanne Perez of the Books & Whatnot podcast, creator of the podcast You're Saying It Wrong, creator of KMUW's daily news podcast Wichita's Early Edition, and NPR StoryLab Workshop team member on the award-winning podcast My Fellow Kansans.