| Edition |
First American edition. |
| Description |
224 pages ; 24 cm |
| Summary |
By degrees -- in shifting POVs and time periods cutting from the 1970s until the present -- Lively introduces the prodigious Harper family. There's Alison, the frazzled matriarch, who married young and pregnant, and persuaded her historian husband to buy Allersmead; distracted father Charles, who writes recherché tomes in his study and can't remember what ages his children are; and the children, who range from the wayward eldest and mother's favorite, Paul, to the youngest, Clare, whose parentage involves a family secret concerning Ingrid, the Scandinavian au pair. Lively adeptly focuses on the second-oldest, Gina, a foreign journalist who planned her life to stay far away from home until, at age 39, fellow journalist Philip goads her to contemplate settling down for the first time. |
| Subject |
Children -- England -- Fiction.
|
|
Family secrets -- Fiction.
|
| Genre/Form |
Domestic fiction.
|
| ISBN |
9780670021246 |
|
0670021245 |
|
