Go Gentle
The joyful new novel from the author of Where’d You Go Bernadette
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
⭐ The new novel from the bestselling author of Where'd You Go Bernadette ⭐
'Smart, funny and devastating in a great way' Jennette McCurdy
'I felt both cleverer and sillier after finishing this book' Guardian
'Loaded with Maria Semple's signature wit' Bonnie Garmus
Adora Hazzard has it all figured out.
A contented divorcée, she relishes her teenage daughter, her job as a moral tutor for an old-money family and the bliss of finally being solo.
Alone but far from lonely, she's also quietly assembling a 'coven' of like-minded single women on the sixth floor of the legendary Ansonia building on New York's Upper West Side. Together, they share groceries, dog walkers - and one dirty little secret: despite their age, they're only just getting started.
Adora's life philosophy is simple: want only what you already have. But could a chance encounter with a charming stranger threaten her joyfully curated life and leave Adora suddenly wanting more - even if she must risk everything to get it?
Go Gentle is a thrilling story of one woman's mid-life transformation, a romance with wit and a globe-trotting mother-daughter story, all wrapped in a mystery with a socko twist.
'A wild ride' The Times
'I adored this novel and it made me very happy' Nina Stibbe
'Maria Semple is a treasure' Los Angeles Times
'Funny and clever and sexy and uplifting' Francesca Segal
'Adora Hazzard is a heroine for the ages' Rufi Thorpe
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette) delivers an energetic caper about a woman who gets roped into blue-blooded family drama and a potential smuggling scheme. Among the terms of philosopher Adora Hazzard's fellowship at the Lockwood museum in New York City is that she provide "moral training" to owners Layla and Lionel Lockwood's tween twins. Adora, who is divorced, lives nearby in the famed Ansonia building with her surly 15-year-old daughter, Viv, where she has assembled a "coven" of fellow middle-aged single ladies who live on the same floor. The plot kicks into gear when Adora gives an extra ballet ticket to the mysterious David Ignatius "Digby" Beale, and the pair begin a romance, threatening to break the rules of her coven. Soon Digby reveals they met not by chance but because he was following her, and he wants her to deliver a sealed letter to Layla. Initially convinced Digby is attempting to recover a stolen artwork from the museum's collection, Adora sets out to investigate, and a series of increasingly alarming misunderstandings ensue. Some readers will have trouble keeping up with the freewheeling plot, but Semple's writing is as limber as ever (defining stoicism for Digby, Adora says, "It's not Keep Calm and Carry On. It's Change Your Perception So You Never Have to Keep Calm and Carry On"). There's plenty to enjoy in this rollicking adventure.
