Contrary People

Overview

In the late 1960s in Austin, Texas, Theo Isaac is grappling with being both recently widowed and retired from a professorship he loved, taking refuge from his life at the Elisabet Ney sculpture museum. Rose Davis, a student from his distant past, returns to Austin after her nonconformist life in Paris falls apart. Together they find that discovering unexpected futures is not just for the young. This is a beautiful, witty tale of human renewal sculpted within a metaphor.

Reviews

“A novel of lyrical stateliness from a master storyteller. Her subject this time is no less than that last great human lesson which we all must learn: how to face death while, as her engaging hero, Theo Isaac discovers, still embracing life.”  —Sarah Bird, author, The Gap Year

“Carolyn Osborn casts a sympathetic but enlightened eye on old and young lovers burdened with memories of those they have lost. Loneliness and longing are made sharper by the life experiences of the older pair while the fate of the two younger lovers is a variation of their elders’ passions. Told with skill and deliberation, Contrary People is not sad or gloomy but filled with good memories, happy days, and the joy and pain that belong to all of us.”  —Robert Flynn, author, Jade: The Law

“As ever, Carolyn Osborn is spot on when it comes to giving us characters we can believe in, agonize over, and even invite to dance. This is an all-at-one-sitting read that goes deep and when it comes up for air leaves stacks of hard-won wisdom behind. Brava!”  —Rosemary Catacalos, author, Again for the First Time

“Tight, touching, and funny—a wonderful cast of characters matching wits and sorrows in a special time and place.”  —Jan Reid, coauthor, The Hammer Comes Down, on Uncertain Ground

Author Biography

Carolyn Osborn is the author of numerous books, including The Fields of Memory, A Horse of Another Color, and Warriors & Maidens, and the recipient of a Distinguished Prose Award from the Antioch Review and the Lon Tinckle Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. She lives in Austin, Texas.