Rare Objects
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The stunning new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector.
‘Beautifully written… wonderfully absorbing with a clever twist in the tale’ Isabel Wolff, author of Ghostwritten
Mae Fanning seizes on a job at a tiny, exclusive Boston antiques shop as the fresh start she desperately needs. It opens a window to new world, one peopled with rare and rich characters. But the day that enigmatic socialite Diana van der Laar walks in, Mae’s hidden past returns.
As a moth to a flame, Mae is unable to resist Diana’s heady, seductive glamour and glittering life. Yet, like the rare objects in the shop, very little is what it appears – Diana included.
Moving from Jazz-Age New York to Boston in the grip of the Great Depression, Rare Objects is a rich and gripping story of what it means to reach for a braver, bolder life.
Reviews
‘Beautifully written… wonderfully absorbing with a clever twist in the tale’ Isabel Wolff, author of Ghostwritten
‘Full of rich historical detail and intriguing characters… A delight from start to end’ Hazel Gaynor, author of The Girl Who Came Home
‘A delicious novel… Kathleen Tessaro creates unforgettable worlds and, within them, compelling characters who stay with the reader long after she reaches the end’ Adriana Trigiani
‘Excellent… Tessaro has the skill to transport the reader to another time and place. She put me on the streets of Boston's North End. But her description of places and sensations throughout the book are wonderful.’ Charles Belfoure, New York Times bestselling author of House of Thieves and The Paris Architect
About the author
Kathleen Tessaro is the author of Elegance, Innocence, The Flirt, The Debutante, and The Perfume Collector. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and son.
www.kathleentessaro.com
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tessaro's (The Perfume Collector) sixth novel navigates a complicated friendship between two damaged young women in 1932 Boston. After finishing secretarial school, Maeve Fanning moved to New York to seek her fortune a venture that lasted less than a year and ended with a stay in a mental institution. Now she's returned to her native Boston, and in order to put New York behind her, she decides to reinvent herself. She dyes her red hair blond, shortens her name to the less Irish-sounding May, and fibs her way into a job as a sales clerk at Winshaw and Kessler Antiques, where her penchant for embellishment proves to be an asset. May's cover is nearly blown when young socialite Diana Van der Laar recognizes her from their shared time in the mental institution. Bound by this secret, May and Diana become fast friends, and May's suddenly swept up in the wild social scene of Boston's upper crust. An illicit affair with Diana's dashing older brother complicates the friendship, as does Diana's own secrets. To varying degrees of success, Tessaro overlays a historical setting and antiquated moral code onto some very modern-feeling situations. An intriguing correspondence between May and the shop's mysterious absentee co-owner brings further entertainment and character insight, though it doesn't fit seamlessly into the rest of the plot. Still, Tessaro's complicated heroines and the shattering reveal of secret after secret will keep readers guessing until the final page.
