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ABOUT


RELEASED 2021 BY DELPHINIUM BOOKS:


THE OPPOSITE OF CHANCE


A NEW NOVEL BY MARGARET HERMES

At thirty-two, Betsy is sheltered. Sheltered by a close-knit family, Catholic
schools, college in her hometown, and a marriage at 20. It takes the discovery
of her husband’s serial philandering to open her eyes and push her out of the
nest. It’s the summer of 1981, Betsy grabs a backpack and a few good books and
puts distance—geographically and emotionally—between herself and the life she
knew in the American Midwest. She begins to make her own decisions: about
cities, hotels, and dinner entrées. At airports, on trains, and in pensiones,
Betsy takes her first steps into independence as she negotiates the brief, but
intense relationships travelers have. Armed with a book of travelers’ phrases
and a Swiss Army Knife, she brushes up against possibilities for connection,
almost entering the life stories of the strangers she chances upon and whose
paths we follow in alternating chapters. We become acquainted with a devout
Muslim on a pilgrimage, a French financier raised on a rabbit farm, a lawyer on
a solo honeymoon, a Pakistani gambler, a beguiling American threesome en route
to Venice, an Italian hotel owner on Lake Como, and a passionate Irish protestor
who literally carries her to safety from the streets of Dublin. Finally, back
home, Betsy comes to the startling realization that her journey is only just
beginning.

The Opposite of Chance was named one of “20 of our favorite books from 2021 by
the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Margaret Hermes is the winner of the Doris Bakwin Book Award. Her work has
received several prizes and honors, including an unprecedented Second Place for
the 2013 Balcones Fiction Prize and First Place in “The Write Stuff” short story
competition.

Writer Margaret Hermes types with her index fingers after composing longhand.
She tapped out her first novel on a Smith Corona that now rests in a boat
floating in the Pacific (the typewriter, not the novel).  Though she won first
place in a short fiction contest that upgraded her keyboard to a personal
computer, she continues to first set words on paper with a ballpoint pen.






AWARDS & HONORS

 * 2013 Balcones Fiction Prize 2nd Place
 * Doris Bakwin Book Award
 * The Opposite of Chance named one of “20 of our favorite books from 2021”


BLOGROLL

 * LitHub


BUY

 * Anthology – "Relative Strangers"
 * Blair/Carolina Wren
 * Fiction International
 * The Opposite of Chance, Delphinium Books


FACEBOOK

 * Facebook – Relative Strangers
 * Facebook: The Opposite of Chance


INTERVIEWS

 * 1/2 Dozen with Margaret Hermes
 * Fiction International: World in Pain
 * Margaret Hermes and the Wildly Various Triggers
 * Questions & Authors
 * St. Louis author's novel sends woman on a European adventure
 * Women's International League for Peace and Freedom


LITERARY LINKS

 * Art Times – "Bird Calls"
 * Art Times – "The Note"
 * Green Hills Literary Lantern – "Dedicated"
 * Included in "20 Over 40"
 * Red Cedar Review – "Without Windows"
 * River Styx – "Sweetmouth"
 * Thema Magazine – "The Pensione Désirée"
 * University Press of Mississippi – 20 Over 40


LOCAL

 * Missouri Coalition for the Environment


VIDEO

 * Left Bank Books presents Margaret Hermes in conversation with Mary Troy
 * Relative Strangers Stop-Motion Animated Trailer
 * The Opposite of Chance animated trailer



Copyright Margaret Hermes
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