A satisfying romp through a New England enclave that’s not nearly as idyllic as it seems.
After relocating to Maine for her husband’s job, a young woman must learn to navigate her new social scene while trying to save her deteriorating marriage.
When Charlie’s husband, Dev, takes a job in the wealthy town of Rumford, Maine, she’s hopeful the new gig will mean a more relaxed lifestyle and more time to work on the growing schism that has crept into their once-blissful relationship. As they settle into their new home, Charlie is surprised not only by the level of opulence in Rumford, but also by the fact that Dev is working harder than ever. He’s never around, leaving Charlie alone with their young twins as she tries to figure out life in the high society where they’ve landed. It’s not long before she meets a few of Rumford’s young moms, who quickly take her under their very preppy wings. They invite her to join parties at the country club, sailing trips, book club meetings, and more, gradually revealing that none of their lives are quite as perfect as they seem. As relations between Charlie and Dev grow increasingly strained, Charlie finds herself becoming too friendly with a handsome, flirtatious local man. Struggling to understand why Dev keeps pulling further away, she wonders if she’s going to become one more scandal in this deceptively perfect town. Told entirely in the first person from Charlie’s perspective, this plot-driven novel pokes fun at cliquey young families in fancy coastal towns while also tackling deeper issues like marital struggles, financial strain, and the pressure to fit in. Though the story is engaging, much of it rests on the constant miscommunication between Charlie and Dev, which begins to feel unrealistic as weeks pass without Charlie simply asking him about his puzzling behavior. Similarly, as Charlie struggles to keep up with her new friends, the slapstick nature of her repeated mistakes begins to feel contrived. Even so, the character development, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, and nuanced examination of social dynamics are strong enough that readers will find much to enjoy in this perceptive novel.
A satisfying romp through a New England enclave that’s not nearly as idyllic as it seems.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781662514852
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Little A
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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