Background
Amity Gaige was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, to an academic father and a psychologist mother.
Amity Gaige was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, to an academic father and a psychologist mother.
She graduated from Brown University, where she studied English and theater. She later attended the Iowa Writers" Workshop (1997-1999).
The Gaige family moved several times before settling in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her second novel, The Folded World, was published in 2007 (Other Press, Random House), and garnered independent publishing awards that year. The novel stirred controversy in its depiction of a reckless young father who flees with his six-year-old daughter on a road trip through New England after a custody battle.
The author drew inspiration from the real-life Christian Gerhartsreiter story, though the book is not a novelization of that story.
In style and form, Schroder drew comparison to works by Nabokov. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Schroder’s closest literary relative is probably Lolita (minus the pedophilia),” and Kathryn Schulz suggested that Gaige intended Schroder as an homage and an “appropriation” of Lolita in New York Magazine, which published a scratched-out image of Nabokov’s cover art
Gaige also cited Pale Fire as an influence in an interview with The New York Times" John Williams. The book was sold pre-publication for translation into fifteen languages, and was endorsed on the Dutch television show De Wereld Draait Door, sending the book into numerous reprintings.
According to WorldCat, the book is held in 3,873 libraries, with editions in 8 languages.
Gaige is the Visiting Writer at Amherst College. 2014 shortlist for Schroder.
