As Good as Dead
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
At the high-octane Iowa Writers' Workshop, small-town Charlotte is thrilled and confounded by her relationship with charismatic and sophisticated Esmé: One moment, Esmé appears to be Charlotte's most intimate friend; the next, her rival. After a tumultuous weekend, Charlotte's insecurities and her resentment toward Esmé reach a fever pitch. Blindly, Charlotte strikes out--in an act of betrayal that ultimately unleashes a cascade of calamities on her own head.
Twenty years later, Charlotte is a successful novelist. A much-changed Esmé appears, bringing the past that Charlotte grieved over, and believed buried, to the doorstep of Charlotte and her beloved husband. Charlotte finds herself both frightened and charmed. Though she yearns to redeem the old friendship and her transgression, she is wary--and rightly so.
As Good As Dead performs an exquisitely tuned psychological high-wire act as it explores the dangers that lie in wait when trust is poisoned by secrets and fears.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Evans (The Blue Hour) explores the complexity of friendships as two women reconnect after 20 years. At the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Esme and Charlotte become friends as Esme basks in Charlotte's adulation of her. Charlotte is a smalltown girl from a staid middle-class family while Esme's wealth and upper crust upbringing fascinate Charlotte. But jealousy simmers beneath the surface of their friendship, and Charlotte's betrayal of Esme has lasting consequences. Twenty years later, Charlotte is happily married to Will, and they are both successful professors at a university in Tucson. When Esme makes an effort to reconnect with Charlotte, Charlotte is willing to see whether she can rekindle their friendship. As Charlotte and Will meet with Esme and her husband, Jeremy, the encounter quickly becomes awkward, culminating in Esme's threatening behavior. Through flashbacks, Evans contrasts Charlotte's na vet as a young women with her confident persona as a professor. But the undercurrent of Charlotte's insecurity remains part of her personality as she is forced to face the demons of her past. Evans's expertly plotted novel is a thoroughly satisfying study of the intricacies of relationships.
