The Ever After
A Novel
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3.5 • 138 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Writing with rawness and realism, Pekkanen doesn’t hold back…Fans of Liane Moriarty and Anne Tyler will appreciate the story’s depth.” —Booklist
“In her signature conversational style, Pekkanen uncovers the truth behind the lies as Josie comes to grips with reality vs. the mirage of her marriage.” —Library Journal (starred review)
In this intricate and enthralling domestic drama, perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and The Affair, the internationally bestselling author of the “gossipy page-turner” (Glamour) The Perfect Neighbors goes deep into a marriage in crisis, peeling back layers of secrets to discover where the relationship veered off course—and whether it is worth saving.
Josie and Frank Moore are happy…at least Josie thinks they are. As parents of two young girls in the Chicago suburbs, their days can be both busy and monotonous, and sometimes Josie wonders how she became a harried fortysomething mother rather than the driven career woman she once was. But Frank is a phenomenal father, he’s handsome and charismatic, and he still looks at his wife like she’s the beautiful woman he married more than a decade ago. Josie isn’t just happy—she’s lucky.
Until one Saturday morning when Josie borrows her husband’s phone to make a quick call—and sees nine words that shatter her world.
Now Josie feels as if she is standing at the edge of a sharp precipice. As she looks back at pivotal moments in the relationship she believed would last forever, she is also plunging ahead, surprising everyone (especially herself) with how far she will go to uncover the extent of her husband’s devastating secret.
With her “conversational writing style and a knack for making readers care about her characters” (The Washington Post) bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen paints a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of a marriage before and during a crisis—and of a woman who fears that the biggest secret of all may be the one she’s hiding from herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest from Pekkanen (The Wife Between Us) is a by-the-numbers domestic drama in which a woman's world shatters when an incriminating email alerts her to her husband's affair. Chicago suburbanites Josie and Frank Moore have been married for 12 years and have two young girls, three-year-old Isabella and seven-year-old Zoe. After discovering the email on Frank's phone, Josie finds out that he's been seeing a married coworker. Josie confronts Frank, and he insists it was only a few times and never went beyond kissing. Josie isn't so sure, and the pace subsequently alternates between frantic and introspective as she dissects her marriage, past and present, while obsessively working out the timeline of the affair. Frank vows to make things right and, after Josie asks him to move out, undertakes painfully earnest attempts at self-improvement, like attending church and volunteering at a soup kitchen. While working through her pain, Josie eventually glimpses the possibility of forgiveness, but the pat conclusion is disappointing. Although Pekkanen excels at capturing the intimate details of family life and the insidiousness of domestic ennui, this study of a marriage in crisis, while diverting, doesn't distinguish itself in a crowded field.
Customer Reviews
Boring
I read The Wife Between Us and thought I’d try this too because the first book was pretty good. This is a terrible snooze. I kept waiting for something to happen but nothing happened. Don’t waste your money.
Snooze zzzz
Zero character development, very one dimensional, yet could have been good because of a decent plot. The protagonist is just a wife and mother, no interests outside of the home. And all she does is whine and hiss throughout most of the book. Lovely. Can’t recall what the husband does for a living, and Hank the dog had 4 lines in the entire book. Save your money. Snooze, boring and not written very well.