Amazing Grace Adams
The New York Times Bestseller and Read With Jenna Book Club Pick
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Publisher Description
**A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK!**
**THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
'Littlewood writes with ferocity and compassion. Read it and weep (then cheer)' THE TIMES
'I just adored this . . . An unforgettable read' LIANE MORIARTY
'Compelling, funny and poignant. I devoured it' PAULA HAWKINS
'A rip-roaring, empowering story. Glorious' DAILY EXPRESS
'An absolute gut punch of a book' RED
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Is this the best worst day of her life?
Once, Grace Adams was poised for great things. Now, she barely attracts a second glance as she strides down the street carrying her daughter's sixteenth birthday cake.
But behind the scenes, Grace's life is in freefall. Her husband is divorcing her. Her daughter has banned her from her birthday party. And Grace has just abandoned her car in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Because Grace Adams has finally had enough. She's sick of being overlooked and underappreciated, and she's particularly tired of being polite. She's about to set off on a journey to rediscover who she is, and confront the secret that has torn her family apart.
What is that secret? You're about to find out . . .
New York Times bestseller, September 2023
Jenna's Book Club Pick, September 2023
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Told over the course of an increasingly chaotic day, interspersed with flashbacks to key events in preceding months and years, Fran Littlewood’s debut novel is a wild, exhilarating, emotional rollercoaster. Her marriage and career in pieces, Grace focuses with manic determination on repairing a brutal schism with her teenage daughter. In the present day, there’s something utterly glorious about watching this middle-aged woman reject her increasing social invisibility while also refusing to temper her fierce love for her child or hide the messiness of motherhood. But it’s in the flashbacks that the story is beautifully filled out. Grace’s character is deepened and her love story given weight and meaning. There are shocks and gut punches to heighten the stakes, but nothing that is manipulative. Instead, Grace and her family feel brilliantly, dramatically real and believable, and she becomes a heroine to take to heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Littlewood debuts with an uneven perimenopause drama centered on the tempestuous relationship between a mother and her teenage daughter. Grace is 45 and recently separated from her husband, Ben. Once a gifted translator whose skills made her famous on television (the press called her a "ravishing redhead" and a "cunning linguist"), Grace feels adrift in her life, with diminishing professional prospects and a body that feels like it's "drying up from the inside out." She can't believe her daughter, 15-year-old Lotte, has grown from being the baby on her hip to a distant teenager and something of a TikTok sensation. When Grace finds a sexually suggestive note in the pocket of Lotte's blazer, her anxiety skyrockets. Then Grace learns her daughter has been skipping school. As Lotte pulls further away, Grace goes increasingly off-kilter, embarking on a frenzied, disastrous quest to bring Lotte a birthday cake. The novel employs a nonlinear timeline, with some chapters taking place in the early aughts, when Grace and Ben first met at a polyglot competition. Though the plot can feel undercooked, Littlewood easily captures the grief Grace feels at nearing the end of her reproductive years, and the mother-daughter relationship is similarly well drawn. It's a mixed bag, but Littlewood, like her protagonist, consistently finds the right words. (Sep.)
