Where'd You Go, Bernadette
The New York Times bestseller, now a major motion picture starring Cate Blanchett
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4.2 • 138 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES bestseller
Shortlisted for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction
Now a major motion picture, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup
'Like A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD written by Tina Fey' RED MAGAZINE
Bernadette Fox is notorious.
To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she's his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife.
To fellow mothers at the school gate, she's a menace.
To design experts, she's a revolutionary architect.
And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, quite simply, mum.
Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her.
WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE is a compulsively readable, irresistibly written, deeply touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's place in the world.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Bernadette Fox is an acclaimed Seattle architect and mother of two. She’s also a troubled agoraphobic who goes AWOL ahead of a family vacation to Antarctica. Maria Semple uses Bernadette’s personal emails, messages and calls—there’s even a “live blog” of a TED talk given by Elgie Fox, Bernadette’s husband—to tell this innovative, darkly comic tale. (We also hear from Bernadette’s daughter, Bee.) Through the story of Bernadette’s decline, Semple challenges conventional notions of motherhood and professional success and raises questions about the price of the modern magazine-perfect lifestyle.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her second novel (after This One Is Mine), Semple pieces together a modern-day comic caper full of heart and ingenuity. Eighth-grader Bee is the daughter of Microsoft genius Elgin Branch and Bernadette Fox, a once-famous architect who has become a recluse in her Seattle home. Bee has a simple request: a family cruise to Antarctica as a reward for her good grades. Her parents acquiesce, but not without trepidation. Bernadette's social anxiety has become so overwhelming that she's employed a personal assistant from Delhi Virtual Assistants Intl. (who makes " USD/hr.") for tasks as simple as making dinner reservations. How will she survive three weeks on a boat with other live human beings? Maybe she won't; a day before the trip, Bernadette disappears, and Bee gathers her mother's invoices, e-mail correspondence, and emergency room bills in the hopes of finding clues as to where she went.The result is a compelling composite of a woman's life and the way she's viewed by the many people who share it. As expected from a writer who has written episodes of Arrested Development, the nuances of mundane interactions are brilliantly captured, and the overarching mystery deepens with each page, until the thoroughly satisfying d nouement.
Customer Reviews
Couldnt put it down and easy read
Love the writing too. It’s a dossier of letters, emails etc to pull the story together
Depressing!
This book is depressing, but engaging, at the same time.