Still Life with Bread Crumbs
A Novel
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4.1 • 935 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “marvelous romantic comedy” (The New York Times Book Review) from Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anna Quindlen
“[A] wise tale about second chances, starting over, and going after what is most important in life.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.
Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It’s never too late to find love—or find yourself. This beautifully quiet novel from Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Quindlen centers on Rebecca Winter, a photographer who was once an icon of the feminist movement. Now that the royalties have dried up and she’s finally left her icy ex-husband, Rebecca decides to save some money by subletting her Manhattan apartment and moving into a cottage upstate. We found the 60-year-old Rebecca—who has no idea what comes next or who she really is—incredibly relatable. Quindlen does a great job of portraying a lifelong New Yorker’s slow acclimation to the muddy roads and sincerity of small-town life. And when Rebecca meets Jim Bates, a sweet, honest, good-looking roofer, the story gets a dreamy touch of romance. He’s the kind of man Rebecca has never experienced—the good kind. Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a warm, gentle reminder that it’s never too late to start the next chapter.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixty-year-old Rebecca Winters is having a midlife crisis. Once an iconic photographer, her fame, and sales, have diminished over the years, and money problems have reached a crisis point. She's long divorced, her son is grown, and she is lonely. To save money, she sublets her Manhattan apartment and rents a ramshackle cottage in the country, where, unexpectedly, she learns about life and herself, rediscovers her love of photography, and connects with Jim Bates, a down-to-earth roofer. Narrator MacDuffie perfectly conveys Rebecca's worries and self-doubt, her increasing attraction to Jim, and her ultimate sense of confidence and peace. She also creates memorable and believable voices for the other characters particularly for garrulous Sarah (a village baker) and manly Jim. A Random House hardcover.
Customer Reviews
Somewhere between easy and moving.
I enjoyed this read. It wasn't completely heartbreaking or overwhelming but offered enough emotion to keep you turning the pages. I'm ready to look for another one of her book.
Happy ending
Anna Q's first happy ending is a good read especially, for this 60 something. She validates any woman's thoughts of reinvention.
A good uplifting read
A charming story that gets the artist’s emotional struggle. The characters are well developed with all the flaws and beauty of real life. Easy to read and ended too soon.