Books by Virginia Pye
For book events and other PR queries contact: Megan Beatie Communications
Coming February 10, 2026
from Koehler Books
Marriage and Other Monuments, a novel
In the summer of 2020, as social justice protests and the removal of Confederate monuments rock the city of Richmond, Virginia, the marriages of two estranged sisters also implode, eventually bringing them closer, while their husbands conspire in a racial reckoning their ancestors would never have dreamed of. Marriage and Other Monuments also shows how secrets within a marriage erode trust, and that for couples to evolve they must be true to who they are as individuals and as members of an imperfect society. READ MORE
“Marriage and Other Monuments is a riveting contemporary narrative that intertwines suspenseful family drama, powerful themes of social justice, and a plot ripped soulfully from the headlines. Pye tells a story of race, marriage, and politics ideal for book club discussions and sure to satisfy readers of every stripe.”
—Bruce Holsinger, Culpability, Oprah Book Club pick
“Fans of Ann Napolitano and Mary Beth Keane: Buy this novel immediately! An engrossing, timely family saga, Virginia Pye’s Marriage and Other Monuments explores complicated truths about race and class—and love and desire—in the contemporary south, shining a brilliant light on the turmoil of 2020 through the lens of history.”
—Joanna Rackoff, My Salinger Year
BOSTON GLOBE
FEATURED INTERVIEW
LISTEN WBUR’s Radio Boston
Interview with Tiziana Dearing
WATCH Virginia Pye
at the Boston Athanaeum
READ an Excerpt from
The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann
2019 IPPY Gold Medal for Short Fiction
“...a deeply moving meditation on the complexity and potential generosity of love.” —Kirkus Reviews
2015 Best Book
Richmond Times Dispatch
“Superb historical fiction!”
—Historical Novels Review
2014 Literary Award for
Fiction and Indie Next Pick
“Terrific, tremendous, wonderful...a strong beautiful, deep book.”
—Annie Dillard
Virginia Pye is the author of four books of fiction, most recently the novel, The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann. Her short story collection, Shelf Life of Happiness, won the 2019 IPPY Gold Medal for Short Fiction, and one of its stories was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her two post-colonial historical novels, River of Dust and Dreams of the Red Phoenix have also received literary awards. Virginia’s essays have appeared in The New York Times, Literary Hub, Publisher’s Weekly, Huffington Post, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Writer’s Digest, as well as in numerous literary magazines. A graduate of Wesleyan University, she holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and has taught writing at New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, and, most recently, at GrubStreet’s Muse and Marketplace Conference in Boston. She is Co-Fiction Editor for Pangyrus, a literary journal based in Cambridge, and a board member of the Women’s National Book Association, Boston Chapter.