The World After Alice
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award
“The World After Alice is a lovely debut novel that glimmers with fine writing and notes of human insight. There's a quiet beauty to Lauren Aliza Green's work, and I am now a fan.”
—Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful
“A page-turner of a family drama. The World After Alice is at turns brutally honest, funny, and deeply empathic.” —Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
Named One of Forbes’s 2024 30 Under 30 in Media
For readers of Seating Arrangements and The Most Fun We Ever Had, a gorgeous and gripping story of two families brought together to celebrate an unexpected marriage, twelve years after a devastating tragedy upended their lives
When Morgan and Benji surprise their families with a wedding invitation to Maine, they’re aware the news of their clandestine relationship will come as a shock. Twelve years have passed since the stunning loss of sixteen-year-old Alice, Benji’s sister and Morgan’s best friend, and no one is quite the same. But the young couple decide to plunge headlong into matrimony, marking the first time their fractured families will reunite since Alice’s funeral.
As the arriving guests descend upon the tranquil coastal town, they bring with them not only skepticism about the impromptu nuptials but also deep-seated secrets and agendas of their own. Peter, Morgan’s father, may be trying to dissuade his daughter from saying “I do,” while Linnie, Benji’s mother, introduces a boyfriend who bears a tumultuous past of his own. Nick, Benji’s father, is scheming to secure a new job before his wife—formerly his mistress—discovers he’s lost his old one. Morgan, too, carries delicate secrets that threaten to jeopardize the happiness for which she has so longed. And as for Benji—well, he’s just trying to make sure the whole weekend doesn’t implode.
As the whirlwind weekend unfolds, old passions reignite, deep wounds resurface, and unearthed secrets threaten to shatter the fragile peace the wedding promises. With each new revelation, the to-be-weds and their complicated families are forced to question just how well they know the ones they hold dear.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Green evokes The Big Chill in her dramatic if undercooked debut about a Maine wedding that takes place 12 years after the groom's older sister's suicide. Alice Weil, a 16-year-old violin prodigy, jumped to her death from the George Washington Bridge. Now, her brother, Benji, is marrying Alice's childhood best friend, Morgan. In attendance are Alice's divorced parents, Linnie and Nick; Morgan's divorced dad, Peter; and Alice's grandmother, who has dementia. Nick, who's secretly dealing with financial troubles, brings his younger wife, Caro, while Linnie is accompanied by her new boyfriend, Ezra, a philosophy professor and former high school teacher of Alice's. Complicating things further is Peter's long-standing crush on Linnie. Though Benji sees the wedding as a chance for the families to heal old wounds, Morgan realizes "no one had abandoned their grief" for Alice; "they'd merely found better places to hide it." The plot—complete with love notes accidentally shared with the wrong person, wedding guests hiding in closets, and secret rendezvous—hints at farce, but the tone never finds its footing, as Green keeps things somber and sedate and the intimations of an illicit relationship between two of the characters evaporate on the way to an enigmatic conclusion. Only the most patient readers need apply.
