inventive and lovely Jazz Age story.”- Washington Post In The Chaperone, Moriarty gives us a historically detailed and nuanced portrayal of the social upheaval that spilled into every corner of American life by 1922. In this fascinating historical novel, her minder, Cora, struggles to keep her charge within the bounds of propriety but finds herself questioning the confines of her own life. Thorough Cora the world of early 20th-century America comes alive, and her personal triumphs become cause for celebration.”- People “When silent film star Louise Brooks was a sexually provocative and headstrong 15-year-old from Kansas, she traveled with a chaperone to new York City to attend dance school. In this fictional account of Cora and Louise’s off-and-on relationship, Laura Moriarty writes with grace and compassion about life’s infinite possibilities for change and, ultimately, happiness.”- Minneapolis Star Tribune As Cora struggles to tame Louise’s free spirit, she finds herself moving past the safety of her own personal boundaries. “Film star Louise Brooks was a legend in her time, but the real lead of The Chaperone is Cora Carlise, Brooks’ 36-year-old chaperone for her first visit to New York City in 1922. With much sharpness but great empathy, Moriarty lays bare the settled mindset of this stolid, somewhat fearful woman-and the new experiences that shake that mindset up.”- San Francisco Weekly

Brooks’s may be the novel’s marquee name, but the story’s heart is Cora’s. After a battle of wills, there’s a sudden change of destiny for both women, with surprising and poignant results.”- Entertainment Weekly“Throughout The Chaperone, her fourth and best novel, Laura Moriarty mines first-rate fiction from the tension between a corrupting coastal media and the ideal of heart-of-America morality. But in Laura Moriarty’s engaging new novel The Chaperone, Brooks is just a hyper-precocious and bratty 15-year-old, and our protagonist, 36-year-old Cora Carlisle, has the not-easy mission of keeping the teenager virtuous while on a trip from their native Kansas to New York City. “With her shiny black bob and milky skin, Louise Brooks epitomized silent-film glamour. A mesmerizing take on women in this pivotal era.”- Vogue “In her new novel, The Chaperone, Laura Morirty treats this golden age with an evocative look at the early life of silent-film icon Louise Brooks, who in 1922 leaves Wichita, Kansas, for New York City in the company of 36-year-old chaperone, Cora Carlisle. In this layered and inventive story, Moriarty raises profound questions about family, sexuality, history, and whether it is luck or will-or a sturdy combination of the two-that makes for a wonderful life.”- O, The Oprah Magazine and how their unlikely relationship changed their lives. “ The Chaperone is the enthralling story of two women.

The chaperone book