| 'A reflective, smoothly written novel. . . . The denouement is strong and affecting.'-Publishers Weekly 'Kelly writes like there's an angel hiding in her pen. . . . A winner all the way.'-The News & Observer 'An affecting novel . . . a smoothly written tale. Kelly hones in on both the big and small things that draw women together.'-Orlando Sentinel They've been friends since their college days-Shotsie, Bess, and Claire-and the twenty years since have gotten them husbands, children, mortgages, assorted body patches, one handgun, a hysterectomy, and lots of neurosis. Still, at least once a year they again have each other. And Ian. This year, in this affecting, sly, bittersweet novel, they are gathering along with their husbands at Dune Ridge on the coast of North Carolina near the close of summer. Only this year their circle is incomplete. Because Ian-wildly irresponsible Ian, 'the enigma' Ian-does not show. His young, new wife does, however, and no matter what romance Ian may in the past have shared with Shotsie, Bess, and Claire, it's the dewily beautiful Nina who is bearing his child. For sure, a hurricane is heading menacingly their way, and neither friendship nor memory, any more than a creaky seaside cottage, can grant them safe harbor. In old stories new truths unfold. Susan Kelly is the author of the novels Even Now and How Close We Come, winner of the Carolina Novel Award and an alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. |
