Always the Last to Know
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Publisher Description
Sometimes you have to break a family to fix it.
From New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins, a new novel examining a family at the breaking point—in all its messy, difficult, wonderful complexity.
The Frosts are a typical American family. Barb and John, married almost fifty years, are testy and bored with each other...who could blame them after all this time? At least they have their daughters-- Barb's favorite, the perfect, brilliant Juliet; and John's darling, the free-spirited Sadie. The girls themselves couldn't be more different, but at least they got along, more or less. It was fine. It was enough.
Until the day John had a stroke, and their house of cards came tumbling down.
Now Sadie has to put her career as a teacher and struggling artist in New York on hold to come back and care for her beloved dad--and face the love of her life, whose heart she broke, and who broke hers. Now Juliet has to wonder if people will notice that despite her perfect career as a successful architect, her perfect marriage to a charming Brit, and her two perfect daughters, she's spending an increasing amount of time in the closet having panic attacks.
And now Barb and John will finally have to face what's been going on in their marriage all along.
From the author of Good Luck with That and Life and Other Inconveniences comes a new novel of heartbreaking truths and hilarious honesty about what family really means.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Higgins (Good Luck with That) serves up a punchy, angst-ridden multigenerational women's contemporary. After 50 years of marriage, Barb Frost selectman of Stonington, a small Connecticut town is preparing to divorce her husband, John, with whom she's grown apart. John then suffers a catastrophic stroke, and Barb learns he's had a mistress. Barb and John's daughters are going through pain of their own: Sadie, a struggling artist in New York City (and John's favorite), has a dead-end job and a philandering boyfriend; Juliet, a successful architect (and Barb's favorite), is unnerved by stiff competition from a young upstart and former mentee at her firm, and suffers crippling panic attacks. After John's stroke, Sadie moves back home to help care for him and comes face to face with her first love, Noah, who had followed her to New York before their relationship fell apart. Meanwhile, Juliet worries about work and whether she's been a failure to her husband and two daughters. The plot, told in shifting perspectives from the three women, expertly intertwines each of their dilemmas and moves along briskly thanks to the charming, snappy prose. Most importantly, Higgins excels at creating multidimensional, sympathetic characters, an ability that is on full display throughout. This sparkling story is perfect summer reading fare.
