You Are the Love of My Life: A Novel - Hardcover

Shreve, Susan Richards

3.15

831 ratings by Goodreads

9780393082807: You Are the Love of My Life: A Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393082806 ISBN 13: 9780393082807

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012

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“Spare, elegant and absolutely riveting. . . . Cancel those dinner plans―you’ll want to keep reading.”―Joanna Powell, People

It is 1973 and Watergate is on everyone’s lips. Lucy Painter is a children's book illustrator and a single mother of two. She leaves New York and the married father of her children to live in a tightly knit Washington neighborhood in the house where she grew up and where she discovered her father’s suicide. Lucy hopes for a fresh start, but her life is full of secrets: her children know nothing of her father’s death or the identity of their own father. As the new neighbors enter their insular lives, her family’s safety and stability become threatened.

From a writer whose “unique presentation of human experience makes reading a delight” (Elizabeth Strout), You Are the Love of My Life is a story of how shame leads to secrets, secrets to lies, and how lies stand in the way of human connection.

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About the Author:

Susan Richards Shreve is the author of fifteen novels, a memoir, and thirty books for children. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment grant, among other honors. A professor of creative writing at George Mason University and former chairman of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Shreve lives in Washington, D.C.

Review:

“Graceful moments of connection nestled within tales of discord and deception . . . subtly convincing.
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- Donna Rifkind, Washington Post

“Starred review. Handles complex themes of identity, loyalty, privacy, and commitment with finesse, delicacy, and insight . . . a worthy book club recommendation.”
- Booklist

“With her engaging tale and prose as fluid as Sue Miller’s or Anna Quindlen’s, if quirkier, Shreve hits the commercial bull’s eye.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“The corrosive power of family secrets is at the heart of this gripping tale―a beautifully written page-turner that kept me in its thrall until the very end.”
- Dani Shapiro

“The high price of a truth concealed is at the center of this remarkable, ultimately hopeful novel. Susan Shreve reveals her characters and their lives with empathy, wisdom, and, best of all, not a whiff of condescension .”
- Ron Rash

“Susan Shreve is a terrific storyteller who always brings her characters to vivid, sympathetic life. You Are the Love of my Life is my favorite of her books.”
- Hilma Wolitzer

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