Red Hook Road (eBook)
Red Hook Road (eBook)
Description
As lyrical as a sonata, Ayelet Waldman’s follow-up novel to Love and Other Impossible Pursuits explores the aftermath of a family tragedy.
Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.
A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious.
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
AYELET WALDMAN is the author of Daughter’s Keeper, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and the New York Times bestseller Bad Mother. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York, Elle, Vogue, and other publications, and on Salon.com. She and her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon, live in Berkeley, California, with their four children.
Praise for Red Hook Road…
“Excellent. . . . A compelling, unique story. . . . Grabs the reader right away.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Lovely. . . . Memorable. . . . Waldman’s vivid writing makes the reader feel a part of both the wildly beautiful Maine coast and two families’ heart-crushing grief.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“Waldman writes beautifully. . . . [She] keeps her eyes on the road, carrying us into dark territory with wisdom and grace.” —The Washington Post
“You won’t be able to tear yourself away.” —Real Simple
“This beautiful novel shows us how families cope with the most painful kinds of loss and reminds us that even as grief fractures, it can pave the way for unexpected grace.” —Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Songs Without Words
“Waldman knits [relationships] together with the pleasing symmetry of a doily. . . . She also constructs an impressive parallel between the vocations of shipbuilding and playing a stringed instrument. . . . Readers will enjoy the ride.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Articulately plumbs the depths of the parent-child bond with clarity and intense feeling.” —USA Today
“Waldman writes with practiced skill. . . . It’s a love story, a tragedy, a family saga, as well as a novel about class conflict that pits two stubborn, controlling women against one another.” —The Boston Globe
“Terrific. . . . Waldman’s prose style is lovely and fresh. . . . This book made me happy, and happy to be alive.” —Pat Conroy, Amazon.com Review
“With the careful attention of a movie director, Waldman renders a panoramic scene of a wedding. . . . Lyrical descriptions.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“A handbook offering all the varieties of responding to loss. . . . A literary puzzle with rich and emotional rewards. . . . Delicate and insistent. . . . Red Hook Road proves life and art are worth it.” —Bookslut
“[An] engagingly complex examination of two close families.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“Moving. . . . [A] wise and beautifully written book.” —Downeast.com
“Searing. . . . All of the characters are acutely rendered. . . . One of the pleasures of the book is in its detailed description of work: boat building, boxing, teaching and learning music. Sometimes, it suggests, what saves us is the work of our stubborn hands.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Elegant and riveting. . . . A masterful imagining of the way a single tragic event impacts the psyches and behaviors and dynamics of two families.” —Kelly Korrigan, author of The Middle Place and Lift
