by Jim Tilley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 2019
Tilley handles decadeslong character arcs with empathy, resulting in a resonant and humanistic novel.
Tilley’s debut novel after several collections of poetry traces the connections between a disparate group of people in the United States and Canada.
It begins with Ralph, a well-off lawyer in New York City, having a health episode that prompts him to revisit a canoe trip he undertook in 1965 with several of his high school friends. Ralph’s high school girlfriend, Lynn, is a teacher; his old rival, Dieter, now works for a company with a contentious wind farm project in the works. Jean-Pierre, Lynn’s estranged husband, also has ties to the wind farm and often ponders his younger days, when he was deeply involved in Quebecois separatist politics. Many of the characters are in late middle age, with decades of personal history and professional rivalries behind them. The main exception, generationally speaking, is Jules, the grandson of Lynn and Jean-Pierre, raised by them after the boy's parents died in a plane crash. Jules is a high school senior with an interest in engineering, which connects him to many of Lynn’s old friends. Jules is also transgender, which leads to a few awkward moments between him and Jean-Pierre, who is portrayed as being less understanding of Jules’ gender than Lynn. Tilley’s novel charts the shifting balance of power, both emotional and financial, within this group. Tilley handles most of his characters with sympathy, though an early revelation about Dieter helps to establish him as the closest thing this novel has to an antagonist. It’s a slow-burning work but written with a solid attention to detail—even if its focus on quiet conflicts and interpersonal dynamics can feel too restrained at times.
Tilley handles decadeslong character arcs with empathy, resulting in a resonant and humanistic novel.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59709-835-9
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2018
Finding positivity in negative pregnancy-test results, this depiction of a marriage in crisis is nearly perfect.
Named for an imperfectly worded fortune cookie, Hoover's (It Ends with Us, 2016, etc.) latest compares a woman’s relationship with her husband before and after she finds out she’s infertile.
Quinn meets her future husband, Graham, in front of her soon-to-be-ex-fiance’s apartment, where Graham is about to confront him for having an affair with his girlfriend. A few years later, they are happily married but struggling to conceive. The “then and now” format—with alternating chapters moving back and forth in time—allows a hopeful romance to blossom within a dark but relatable dilemma. Back then, Quinn’s bad breakup leads her to the love of her life. In the now, she’s exhausted a laundry list of fertility options, from IVF treatments to adoption, and the silver lining is harder to find. Quinn’s bad relationship with her wealthy mother also prevents her from asking for more money to throw at the problem. But just when Quinn’s narrative starts to sound like she’s writing a long Facebook rant about her struggles, she reveals the larger issue: Ever since she and Graham have been trying to have a baby, intimacy has become a chore, and she doesn’t know how to tell him. Instead, she hopes the contents of a mystery box she’s kept since their wedding day will help her decide their fate. With a few well-timed silences, Hoover turns the fairly common problem of infertility into the more universal problem of poor communication. Graham and Quinn may or may not become parents, but if they don’t talk about their feelings, they won’t remain a couple, either.
Finding positivity in negative pregnancy-test results, this depiction of a marriage in crisis is nearly perfect.Pub Date: July 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-7159-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
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by Rebecca Serle ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020
A heartwarming portrait of a broken heart finding a little healing magic.
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After acing a job interview and accepting a marriage proposal, Dannie Kohan has had the perfect day. That is, until she awakens to find herself five years in the future with a completely different man.
Just one hour in that alternate reality shakes Dannie to her core. After all, highly ambitious Dannie and her boyfriend, David, have plotted out their lives in minute detail, and the sexy man in her dream—was it a dream?—is most certainly not in the script. Serle (The Dinner List, 2018) deftly spins these magical threads into Dannie’s perfectly structured life, leaving not only Dannie, but also the reader wondering whether Dannie time traveled or hallucinated. Her best friend, Bella, would delight in the story given that she thinks Dannie is much too straight-laced, and some spicy dreaming might push Dannie to find someone more passionate than David. Unfortunately, glamorous Bella is in Europe with her latest lover. Ever pragmatic, Dannie consults her therapist, who almost concurs that it was likely a dream, and throws herself into her work. Pleased to have landed the job at a prestigious law firm, Dannie easily loses her worries in litigation. Soon four and a half years have passed with no wedding date set, and Bella is back in the U.S. with a new man in her life. A man who turns out to be literally the man of Dannie’s dream. The sheer fact of Aaron Gregory’s existence forces Dannie to reevaluate her trust in the laws of physics as well as her decision to marry David, a decision that seems less believable with each passing day. And as the architecture of Dannie’s overplanned life disintegrates, Serle twists and twines the remnants of her dream into a surprising future.
A heartwarming portrait of a broken heart finding a little healing magic.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3744-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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