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Constance
Author:
Thomas, Rosie
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PR6070
Print Run: 50000
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ISBN-13: 9781468302646
LCCN: 2016479978
Imprint: Overlook Press
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Pub Date: 08/29/2013
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $27.95
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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453 pages ; 24 cm
H 9.27",
W 6.3",
D 1.49",
1.52 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Romance
Domestic Fiction
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / General
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LC Subjects:
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Bali (Indonesia : Province), Fiction
Domestic fiction
London (England), Fiction
Sisters, Fiction
Terminally ill, Family relationships, Fiction
Women musicians, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Bali (Indonesia : Province), Fiction
Domestic fiction
Family life, Fiction
London (England), Fiction
Sisters, Fiction
Terminally ill, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 05/01/2013 |
| Even Bali's sunny beaches can't keep Connie's past at bay. When she learns that her sister is dying, Connie returns to the London she thought she'd left behind for good and the sister who's her opposite in every way. Having once loved the same man, the sisters must find a way to mend the fraying ties that bind while they still can. 464pp. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 07/01/2013 |
| Introspective and descriptive writing carry along a shaky plot and dangling ends in Thomas' examination of a woman searching for her place in the world. Music writer Constance Thorne is living a seemingly idyllic life in Bali. But paradise can't completely insulate her from the world. She is called back to London to be with her dying sister, Jeanette, a journey that is challenging in many ways. Years before, Constance fell in love with her sister's husband and ended up not only heartbroken but also estranged from the family. Because she was a foundling and raised by adoptive parents, the rejection hit her very hard. Her solution--to flee to Bali--has anchored her until now. Following Constance from lush Bali back to noisy London, the story line also meanders around Jeanette's son, Noah, and his girlfriend, Roxana, who is from Uzbekistan and does her own soul-searching. The different characters water down the plot, but some may be interested in the tangles of old family hurts and the potential power of true forgiveness. Trevelyan, Julie. Booklist Online. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 07/15/2013 |
| Now that she is confronted with losing them, a middle-aged woman strives to finally reconcile her conflicting emotions toward her adoptive family. Constance was named after the London street where she was found, a newborn hours old, under a hedge with only an earring as a memento of the mother who abandoned her. Both her looks (dark and wiry) and musical talent make her feel out of place in her family of plump, blue-eyed blonds. But she has no inkling of her origins until a callous cousin reveals them at the funeral of her beloved parent, Tony. Constance was, it appears, adopted by Tony and Hilda because they feared a second biological child might be deaf, like Constance's older sister, Jeanette. The relationship between the two sisters has always been prickly, not merely due to sibling rivalry, but also to Constance's tenacious attraction (requited as we shall see) to Jeanette's husband, Bill. Weaving between past and present instances of family alienation, we learn that Constance has prospered as a composer for advertising and television and that she fled London for Bali years before after a brief, intense affair with Bill was exposed. The sisters have been definitively estranged since a wrenching encounter at the time of Hilda's death. But now Jeanette emails Constance to inform her that she is dying of cancer and that it is time for a final reckoning. In a subplot that meshes gracefully, Roxana, newly arrived in London from Uzbekistan, is fleeing political unrest that has claimed the life of her brother. She's determined to become an "English girl" even if right now her sole source of income is lap dancing. When she meets Noah, Bill and Jeanette's 20-something son, Roxana's life will intertwine with Constance's in ways that shed light on the dislocation of both women. Constance's belated investigation into her birth circumstances adds suspense to an otherwise meandering and leisurely narrative. Despite rather superficial characters and some long-winded window dressing, a resonant and insightful novel. 464pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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9781468302646,dl.it[0].title
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