of philosopher Adora Hazzard’s fellowship at the Lockwood museum in New York City is that she provide “moral training” to owners Layla and Lionel Lockwood’s tween twins. Adora, who is divorced, lives nearby in the famed Ansonia building with her surly 15-year-old daughter, Viv, where she has assembled a “coven” of fellow middle-aged single ladies who live on the same floor. The plot kicks into gear when Adora gives an extra ballet ticket to the mysterious David Ignatius “Digby” Beale, and the pair begin a romance, threatening to break the rules of her coven. Soon Digby reveals they met not by chance but because he was following her, and he wants her to deliver a sealed letter to Layla. Initially convinced Digby is attempting to recover a stolen art- work from the museum’s collection, Adora sets out to investigate, and a series of increasingly alarming mis- understandings ensue. Some readers will have trouble keeping up with the freewheeling plot, but Semple’s writing is as limber as ever (defining stoicism for Digby, Adora says, “It’s not Keep Calm and Carry On. It’s Change Your Perception So You Never Have to Keep Calm and Carry On”). There’s plenty to enjoy in this rollicking adventure. (Apr.) See You on the Other Side Jay McInerney. Knopf, $30 (304p) ISBN 978-0-593-80479-7 In Bright, Precious Days author McInerney’s bittersweet conclu- sion to his Calloway cycle, married New Yorkers Russell and Corrine again face uncertainty in a period of momentous change, this time during the Covid-19 pandemic. The couple, now in their 60s, have downsized from their Harlem townhouse to Greenwich Village, which Russell calls “the dead center of Manhattan.” Upon approaching the neon lights of the Odeon, where his friends Washington and Virginia Lee are celebrating their 35th anniversary, he brims with nostalgia for the “protean city” of their youth, when cocaine “made him feel as if he would live forever.” The guest list has dwindled,
A decidedly single mother finds herself in a new romance along with some international intrigue in Maria Semple’s Go Gentle (reviewed on this page).
Reviews
A popular tradwife social media star gets thrust into what appears to be the 19th century in Caro Claire Burke’s bruising thriller Yesteryear . Page 87
Ghost Town Tom Perrotta. Scribner, $28 (288p) ISBN 978-1-6680-8063-4 ★ ❘ A middle-aged man makes peace with his childhood trauma in the stellar latest from Perrotta ( Tracy Flick Can’t Win ). Accomplished novelist Jimmy Perrini looks back on his youth in bucolic Creamwood, N.J., after receiving an invitation to a building dedication ceremony in his father’s name. He still hasn’t fully processed the tragic summer of 1974, when, at 13, an unexpected death shook him to his core and left his family unmoored (the details come out late in the novel). Left with “an endless bad dream,” Jimmy stumbled through the rest of his boyhood, which took another dark turn after he struck up a volatile friendship with Eddie, an older boy who smoked weed and drove a Chevy Vega with racing stripes, and Olivia, a high school
valedictorian who introduced him to the mysterious magic of a Ouija board. The story lines run parallel as Jimmy’s present-day indifference about returning to Creamwood collides with intense memories of that fateful summer. Perrotta is a confident storyteller, and he packs a great deal of heart into this tale of moving forward amid crushing grief, in which a writer finally gets a chance to exorcise “the demons you think you’ve outrun.” This is sure to resonate with Perrotta’s longtime fans and win him new readers. Agent: Maria Massie, Massie & McQuilkin. (Apr.) Go Gentle Maria Semple. Putnam, $30 (384p) ISBN 979-8-217-17663-2 Semple ( Where’d You Go, Bernadette ) delivers an energetic caper about a woman who gets roped into blue- blooded family drama and a potential smuggling scheme. Among the terms
In The Faith of Beasts , the second space opera in James S.A. Corey’s Captives
War series, the sinister Carryx pursue galactic domination. Page 90
Bestseller Debbie Macomber takes on the grumpy- sunshine trope in her latest contem- porary, Chasing the Clouds Away . Page 92
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator