What Could Be Saved
A Novel
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4.1 • 94 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When a mysterious man claims to be her long-missing brother, a woman must confront her family’s closely guarded secrets in this “delicious hybrid of mystery, drama, and elegance” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Beatrice as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers.
Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers in a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand.
Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family broken by loss and betrayal, and “a richly imagined page-turner that delivers twists alongside thought-provoking commentary” (Kirkus Reviews).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Schwarz's superb sophomore novel (after The Possible World), an American family's young boy goes missing in Thailand and resurfaces decades later. During the Vietnam War, Robert Preston works as a spy for the U.S. government and moves his family to Bangkok in 1972 under the pretense that he's designing a dam. His resentful wife, Genevieve, begins an affair, and after their youngest child, Philip, disappears, the Prestons return to America with their other two daughters. All except Genevieve assume he's dead, and Genevieve repeatedly returns to search for him. Forty-seven years later, Bea is aghast when her younger sister, Laura, travels to Bangkok in hopes of retrieving Philip, having received an email from a man who claims to have found him. The question of whether the man Laura returns with is their brother remains open for much of the book. The sisters are reluctant to press Philip for details about his disappearance and wonder how to break the news to Genevieve, who now has dementia. Schwarz is a remarkable storyteller, juggling many characters, and the seamless alternating chapters narrated by Laura and a servant from the Preston's house in Bangkok gradually deepen the reader's understanding of the past and present. Schwarz's stellar work is riveting from its start all the way to the final horrifying twist.
Customer Reviews
Great story!
Great book- slow start.
A Mystery And A Family History
I loved this book!
It is the story of an American family living in 1960’s Thailand, whose world is shattered by the horrible disappearance of one of the children - Phillip. At the beginning of the book, more than 40 years after his disappearance, a man claiming to be the missing Phillip reappears in Bangkok.
Is it him?
Where has he been?
Why hasn’t he come forward?
The damaged family barely survived his disappearance- what will his reappearance do?
The story moves back and forth between the present- when Phillip is found - and the past, when Phillip is lost. And the family is broken.
The endless search for Phillip reveals there is more than enough blame to go around, but no answers as to where the boy is.
It’s really a great story!
Ok book
Good story but too philosophical.