Media Center: 'Traps' by MacKenzie Bezos

WHO: MacKenzie Bezos

WHAT: TRAPS, a novel

WHEN: Published by Knopf March 15, 2013

WHERE: The author lives in Seattle

WHY:
“A cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned novel.
“The lives of four troubled women converge outside Las Vegas…Dana, a top-shelf bodyguard, fends off a dog attack without breaking a sweat. The scene serves as a kind of allegory for what Bezos is up to throughout the book: She wants to explore how women respond to threats, and do it free of emotional overreaction. Dana is charged with monitoring Jessica, an Oscar-winning actress who’s compelled to visit her ailing estranged father and care for his dog. The dog brings them into the orbit of Lynn, a recovering alcoholic who runs an animal shelter, and she in turn has taken in Vivian, a 17-year-old prostitute who’s run off with her twin infants to escape her abusive pimp…
“Bezos’ prose doesn’t dramatize—at times, it’s as removed as a dossier, and a spare image of a black widow spider resting on the car seat where Vivian’s babies sleep is enough to convey her brittle, dangerous milieu. The novel isn’t short on conflict. But its drama is powered as much by conversation and the women’s interior thoughts. Each woman is impressively rendered for such a slim book, and each is at a different level of flinty no-nonsensehood that Bezos implies is essential to avoid the ‘traps’ of the title—mostly men, but also just life itself.”
—KIRKUS

“Bezos galvanizes with a sense of dread and keeps the reader in suspense.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Media Resources:
About the book | Author bio | Download the jacket or the author photo

Publicist for this title:
Kim Thornton | 212-572-2299 | kthornton@randomhouse.com