I am not sure why I chose to read this one – was it a kindle daily or monthly deal? I wasn’t that taken with Miller’s Valley, but I really enjoyed this one.
Here is the blurb …
The tensions in a tight-knit neighborhood—and a seemingly happy marriage—are exposed by an unexpected act of violence in this provocative new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Miller’s Valley and Still Life with Bread Crumbs.
Some days Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life—except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. Then one morning she returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the fault lines begin to open: on the block, at her job, especially in her marriage. With humor, understanding, an acute eye, and a warm heart, Anna Quindlen explores what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a woman at a moment of reckoning.
This is Nora’s story and we see how her life changes over the years – being a young wife, the early years of motherhood, navigating a career and motherhood, life as an ’empty nester’ and the gradual drifting apart of a marriage. It is beautifully and generously written (all of the characters are sympathetic – except for the man with the pugs!).