This Must Be the Place
A novel
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4.1 • 227 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An irresistible love story, an unforgettable family. The New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet captures an extraordinary marriage with insight and laugh-out-loud humor in what Richard Russo calls “her breakout book.”
Daniel Sullivan leads a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and his wife, Claudette, is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Together, they have made an idyllic life in the country, but a secret from Daniel’s past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. Shot through with humor and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is an irresistible love story that crisscrosses continents and time zones as it captures an extraordinary marriage, and an unforgettable family, with wit and deep affection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
O'Farrell (The Vainishing Act of Esme Lennox) spins a magical story in her new novel. On the surface, the story is about the unlikely meeting of Daniel, an American, and Claudette, a French-English former actress; the life they make together; the lives they lived before that. and their struggle to hold things together in the face of a secret from Daniel's past. But this description, though accurate, doesn't convey the depth of perception and detail. O'Farrell offers not just backstory, but surround-story, using first-, second- and third-person points of view to depict Daniel and Claudette's children, Daniel's mother, Claudette's brother and his wife, an ex-lover or two, a former friend, a bewildered assistant, and a woman Daniel meets by chance in the Bolivian high plains (who has her own story of betrayal). Across the present and the recent and more distant pasts, in Donegal, Ireland; Brooklyn; London; Sussex, England; and points south and east, relationships start, end, and last. There is enough possibility and randomness for three books, yet the story never feels overstuffed, and when it ends, the reader is stunned and grateful, relieved that in the face of all that can go (and have gone) wrong, some things have come right.
Customer Reviews
Book of the Year
The story is about a couple’s relationship—a man with a long ago secrete that continues to haunts him, and an independent, morally convicted woman, who flees her life as a glamorous film star. Both with children from previous marriages, they fall in love and create a complete life for all of them that shatters when the secrete is revealed. Over time, through anguish and despair, they try to reconcile that which seemed irreconcilable.
Another beautifully written book.
A few years ago, a friend of mine recommended I read Hamnet, describing it as “ a gorgeous book”, which it was. Since then, I’ve become a devoted Maggie O’Farrell fan, and am working my way through her earlier books,all distinctly different in style and story, but absorbing — keeping my up through the wee hours to finish. I love THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, and like the others hated to see it end.
Quite a novel
Enjoyed this clever, feeling story. Intricate writing.