The Harvard Bride

By Katherine Clark

A newlywed woman’s return to Southern society begins an epic and hilarious journey of self-discovery in this satirical novel.

Katherine Clark’s The Harvard Bride begins with the wedding of Daniel Dobbs and Caroline Elmore, college sweethearts introduced in Clark’s novel, All the Governor’s Men. In this wry comedy of manners, their new life—complete with freshly minted Ivy League educations—begins in the “Tiny Kingdom” of Mountain Brook, Alabama.

Unwilling to join the Junior League, look for a house, contemplate motherhood, or even finish her thank-you notes, Caroline can’t seem to find her bearings—or even fulfill her calling as a writer. Meanwhile, Daniel’s law career is going so well she hardly sees him. The most exciting aspect of her life is her handsome next-door neighbor, who also happens to be a writer.

The reappearance of an old school friend, a southern belle bombshell in hot pursuit of all eligible bachelors and potential real estate clients, only adds to Caroline’s problems. When she accepts a surprise job offer at the University of Alabama, she begins to put together an identity of her own—until it falls inexplicably apart. Also featuring the return of larger-than-life Brook-Haven headmaster Norman Laney, The Harvard Bride is at once a social satire and a richly nuanced love story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781611177213

Katherine Clark

Katherine Clark is the co-author of the oral biographies Motherwit: An Alabama Midwife's Story, with Onnie Lee Logan, and Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet (a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award), with Eugene Walter. Her debut novel, The Headmaster's Darlings, won the 2015 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, part of her Mountain Brook series, along with All the Governor's Men, The Harvard Bride, and The Ex-Suicide. All four novels were published by the University of South Carolina Press's Story River Books imprint, whose founding editor was Pat Conroy. Clark holds an A.B. degree in English from Harvard and a Ph.D. in English from Emory.