I'm Mary Novik--welcome to my website! In About Mary, I talk about what inspired me to write my debut novel Conceit, and in About Conceit, you'll find highlights from reviews, a book club guide, readers' comments, and an excerpt. Check back for updates to the Blog and News & Events, and share the 17th-century discoveries I post in Backgrounds. I'd love to hear from you via my Contact page.

Blog

It's seven p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month and we gather in the kitchen of June's East Vancouver apartment, talking all at once. A cork pops and sparkling wine is poured. Things are already jumping. We clink glasses to toast the newest book deal for the SPiN group. Mary has just sold her second novel, Muse, which is set in 14th-century Avignon . . . .

~ Open the blog


Conceit

Conceit is a plenteous, fully engaging re-creation of 17th-century England, observed through the eyes of poet John Donne's daughter, Pegge. Mary Novik's imagination leaps from ecstatic to hellish, probing the carnal, the mortal and the mystical in fascinating counterpoint. The story opens with the great London fire of 1666, expands through decades, then revisits the charred ruins for an apotheosis of the macabre. --Globe & Mail

Backgrounds Unlike Shakespeare, whose portraits are always being discredited, we have no doubt what John Donne looked like at various stages of his life since he was fond of having his image captured. He had himself etched, sketched, engraved, miniaturized, painted in flamboyant costumes, and even carved in marble for his great effigy in St Paul's cathedral in London. ~ Explore backgrounds