Recensori in anteprimaZoe Fishman

Sylvie Snow knows the pressures of expectations: a woman is supposed to work hard, but never be tired; age gracefully, but always be beautiful; fix the family problems, but always be carefree. Sylvie does the grocery shopping, the laundry, the scheduling, the schlepping and the PTA-ing, while planning her son’s Bar Mitzvah and cheerfully tending her husband, Paul, who’s been lying on the sofa with a broken ankle. She’s also secretly addicted to the Oxycontin intended for her husband. For three years, Sylvie has repressed her grief about the heartbreaking stillbirth of her newborn daughter, Delilah. On the morning of the anniversary of her death, when she just can’t face doing one…more…thing: she takes one—just one—of her husband’s discarded pain pills. And suddenly she feels patient, kinder, and miraculously relaxed. She tells herself that the pills are temporary, just a gift, and that when the supply runs out she’ll go back to her regularly scheduled programming. But days turn into weeks, and Sylvie slips slowly into a nightmare. At first, Paul and Teddy are completely unaware, but this changes quickly as her desperate choices reveal her desperate state. As the Bar Mitzvah nears, all three of them must face the void within themselves, both alone and together.

From the author of Driving Lessons, Saving Ruth, and Balancing Acts comes a poignant breakout novel about a single mother who inherits a beautiful beach house with a caveat—she must take care of the ornery elderly woman who lives in it. Maggie Sheets is just trying to get by. A single mother, she works as a house cleaner and dreams of the days when her financial woes will be over. When her former employer, Liza, a renowned author Maggie once considered a friend, takes her own life, Maggie learns that she has been included in the will and now owns a beautiful home in Sag Harbor. But there’s a catch: Maggie’s also inherited Liza’s eighty-two year old mother. Edith has always prided herself on her independence, but a recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis has her wary about the future. She’s left on her own to pick up the pieces of her daughter’s death until Maggie, with her toddler in tow, arrives at her house, guarded but determined to make their unlikely situation work. Edith is angry and uninterested, until she suffers a fall and must rely on Maggie. Together they begin to heal the hurt left in Liza’s wake, and when Maggie offers to transcribe Edith’s life for her to help hold onto the moments she’s terrified of losing, a tentative alliance forms. As Maggie helps Edith resolve the aftermath of a long-held secret—and confronts both the roots and repercussions of one of her own—each woman embarks on a path to forgiveness, acceptance, and a life-changing friendship.

Sarah, a marketing executive with a cosmetics firm, is tired of the crowds, the commute, and the pressures of New York City. When her husband accepts a new job in Farmwood, Virginia, it seems like the perfect chance for life in the slow lane. She's certain a move to the suburban countryside will give her the chance to finally figure out what she really wants -- and whether that includes becoming a mother. Her perfectly together younger sister-in-law just had a baby son, and Sarah's husband is eager to start a family of their own. At thirty-six, the click is ticking, but she still isn't sure. Motherhood (or not) isn't her only concern. Sarah conveniently forgot that living in the 'burbs would also mean facing one of her deepest fears: driving. Lessons might help build her confidence behind the wheel, but Sarah still hasn't figured out exactly where she wants to go. Then, a crisis involving her best friend, Mona, lands her back in New York -- a trip to the past filled with unexpected truths about herself, her friend, and her perfect sister-in-law...and a surprise that will help her see the road ahead.

Ruth Wasserman has always felt like an outsider in her Alabama town. Being a curly-haired Jewish girl amongst blonde Southern Baptists was never easy and, within her own family, she has always played second fiddle to her older brother—a star athlete and student who her parents adore. So when it came to college, she went as far away as you could get, attending the University of Michigan, a Yankee school that she hoped would open up a new world to her. But now she’s back home for the summer and though she may look like a new, wiser woman on the outside, she is struggling with low self-esteem after a dead-end relationship—and what could be the beginnings of a serious eating disorder. And now having experienced a world beyond her muggy, Kool-Aid soaked hometown, she feels even more removed from her family and friends. She’s hoping her usual summer job as a pool lifeguard and swim coach will center her again, but when a child almost drowns on her watch, she discovers that the repercussions will push her to confront long-ignored truths about her parents, her brother, and herself. Reader-favorite Zoe Fishman brings to life one woman’s Southern summer and beautifully shows how tragedy can make us stronger and that knowing who you are on the inside is our greatest strength.