The painted table
(Book)

Includes discussion questions.

The Norwegian table, a century-old heirloom ingrained with family memory, has become a totem of a life Saffee would rather forgeta childhood disrupted by her mothers mental illness. After a childhood spent watching her mother slide steadily into insanity, painting and re-painting the ancient table, Saffee has come to fear that seeds of psychosis may lie dormant within her. She must confront her mothers torment if she wants to defend herself against it. Traversing four generations over the course of a century, The Painted Table is a beautiful portrait of inherited memory. It is a sprawling narrative affirmation that a family artifactlike a family membercan bear the marks of ones past . . . as well as intimations of ones redemption.