Peter Donahue
Peter Donahue's debut novel Madison House (Hawthorne Books) chronicles turn-of-the-century Seattle's explosive transformation from frontier outpost to major metropolis. Maddie Ingram, owner of Madison House, and her quirky and endearing boarders find their lives inextricably linked when the city decides to regrade Denny Hill and the fate of Madison House hangs in the balance. Clyde Hunssler, Maddie's albino handyman and furtive love interest; James Colter, the muckracking black journalist who owns and publishes the Seattle Sentry newspaper; and Chiridah Simpson, an aspiring stage actress forced into prostituion and morphine addiction while working in the city's corrupt vandeville theater, all call Madison House home. Had E.L. Doctorow and Charles Dickens met on the streets of Seattle, they couldn't have created a better book.
Praise for MADISON HOUSE
Winner of the 2005 Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction
Named "Essential Seattle Book" by Not For Tourists 2008 Guide to Seattle
PETER DONAHUE SEEMS TO HAVE A MAP OF OLD SEATTLE in his head. No novel extant is nearly as thorough in its presentation of the early city, and all future attempts in its historical vein will be made in light of this book.
—David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars and Our Lady of the Forest
MADISON HOUSE TREATS READERS to a boarding house full of fascinating and lovable characters as they create their own identities and contribute to early 20th-century life in Seattle. Every page reflects Peter Donahue’s meticulous and imaginative recreation of a lively and engaging moment in American history. I loved reading this novel and sharing in the pleasures and labors of the diverse and authentic inhabitants of a remarkable city.
—Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Four Spirits and Ahab’s Wife
PETER DONAHUE CRAFTS A RESPLENDENT NOVEL examining life in Seattle in the early 20th century, complete with a Dickensian cast of unforgettable characters; a handsome edition from a rising literary house in Portland. — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE HSTORICAL DETAIL is compelling and effectively interlaced with the action. Those interested in the history of the Northwest will find much to savor here. — Booklist
AN AMBITIOUS NOVEL . . . Donahue’s story is a paean to a significant part of the city’s history. — The Seattle Times
MADISON HOUSE IS REMINICENT of the tomes of the 19th century—filled with descriptive passages and forays into the lives of various characters, telling, ultimately, the tale of Seattle's emergence as a city during the first decade of the 20th century. The author's research shows, but does not intrude. The characters are unique and believable... Peter Donahue has penned a memorable chronicle of life in the Pacific Northwest one hundred years ago. — The Historical Novels Review
A RICHLY ATMOSPHERIC debut novel. — Elliott Bay Book Company
DONAHUE'S VERY ACCESSIBLE first novel should appeal to readers who like to see history come alive, particularly those in the Pacific Northwest." — Columbia: The Magazine of Northwest History
DONAHUE'S AFFECTING LITERARY NARRATIVE successfully incorporates social, political, and cultural history as seen through the eyes of the dispossessed, disadvantaged, and disenfranchised in a pivotal time in Seattle's history. — The Absinthe Literary Review
DONAHUE IS PRODUCING THE SAME KIND OF HISTORICALLY ACCURATE, thoroughly researched study of his city as William Kennedy did with his Albany novels . . . Besides Kennedy, however, Donahue also emulates E. L. Doctorow in Ragtime, mixing fictional and historical characters. In Madison House, the novelist Henry James comes to Seattle, and Clyde gets a chance to meet the great man, at that time writing The American Scene. Clyde is a reader, and he and Maddie read, evening by evening, the complex novels of Dickens and James to one another, without haste, savoring them as they go, and that is how to read Madison House. — Don Noble, Alabama Public Radio
DONAHUE'S VIVID DETAIL, not only of geography but also the means and implements of living, gives this novel great verisimilitude as an historical work. The two principal figures and their unusual love affair, together with the vivid characters who surround them, play out against the dramatic transformation of Seattle from frontier settlement to booming metropolis. Beyond the fascinating characters and strong story line, the work is also a meditation on the human cost of expansion and enterprise, insisting that pain and suffering to individual human beings can accompany conventional progress. — Citation for the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction