A page-turning story that was so beautifully written I read passages aloud to my husband. The story of a young man, the grandson of a famous kilim rug maker who inherits his empire after his death. A story of Armenian genocide by Muslim Turks. A story from over a hundred years ago that feels as relevant today as ever. A story of all the good ingredients of historical fiction: family, love, roots, secrets and the real events that ruined peoples lives.
A Francophile and a writer, I loved this insight into one of America's most famous authors life. Hemingway's first marriage, his philanderings, his insecurities, his neuroses, his dreams. What I most appreciated was learning about Paris in the 20s and this intense relationship through his wife's eyes. The entire cast of characters--Gertrude Stein and Alice, Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, Ezra Pound and others--came to life. The descriptions of the streets, the food and drunken states, the sex and challenging of boundaries and social norms, the frivality and youth were well written, rich and vivid. Most of all, the struggle to write, to have a vision, to hone the craft played a pivotal part of the story.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply evocative novel of ambition and betrayal that captures the love affair between two unforgettable people, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley—from the author of Love and Ruin and When the Stars Go Dark
“A beautiful portrait of being in Paris in the glittering 1920s—as a wife and as one’s own woman.”—Entertainment Weekly
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People • Chicago Tribune • NPR • The Philadelphia Inquirer • Kirkus Reviews • The Toronto Sun • BookPage
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has…
In lieu of attending services on Rosh Hashanah, I sat with a cup of Earl Grey tea in a recliner chair in our living room in Tel Aviv and read from the first to the last page. In one gulp. A beautiful book full of food for thought about society, humanity, the state of our world, human needs, community, Jewish teachings, and love. Everyone could benefit from reading this book, especially now.
Have you read part 1 in this duology? Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature
What does it feel like to live permanently between two places, two identities, two versions of yourself, without resolution?
In experimental chapterettes, some contained in a single page, American-born Jennifer Lang traces seven years of rooting down in a country that never quite feels like hers and a self that keeps shifting beneath her feet. Reckoning with her adopted country of Israel, midlife hormones, a cross-cultural marriage to a Frenchman, and their imminent empty nest, she applies the chakra wisdom of her first yoga teacher, nationally acclaimed Rodney Yee, to each obstacle on her path to understanding what home actually means.
The answer, when it finally comes, is not about a place. It is about who you are when you stop waiting to arrive.
