New Releases by Anna Quindlen

A woman confronts the surprising results of an ancestry test and begins to question the meaning of family and friendship in this wise, tender novel teeming with life—from the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of After Annie No one knows you like your book club. High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they’ve become her closest friends and, along with her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her students, her fraught relationship with her mother, her struggles with IVF—Polly’s book club friends have heard about it all. But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. It is clear to Polly that this match is a mistake, but still she cannot help but comb through her family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways. Written with Anna Quindlen’s trademark warmth, humor, and insight into the power of love and hope, More Than Enough explores how we find ourselves again and again through the relationships that define us.

Aqueles que amamos nunca nos deixam por completo. Contada através dos olhos de Ali, Bill e Annemarie, a história acompanha a luta de cada um para encontrar o caminho da reconstrução das suas vidas, à medida que tentam manter viva a memória de Annie. Quando Annie Brown morre de forma súbita, o mundo desaba para aqueles que a amavam. O marido, Bill, fica à deriva com quatro filhos pequenos. Annemarie, a melhor amiga, vê-se a resvalar para antigos vícios. E Ali, a filha mais velha, é empurrada para uma maturidade precoce, tentando cuidar dos irmãos e do pai, enquanto lida com as exigências da vida adulta. Com delicadeza e honestidade, a história explora os laços da família, a força da amizade e o modo como a perda pode iluminar o que é verdadeiramente essencial. Depois de Annie é um retrato comovente da capacidade de reconstrução e da beleza inesperada que, por vezes, nasce do luto.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Part of Quindlen’s gift is that you don’t just read about these characters, you inhabit them. . . . Luminous with life, hope and the power of love.”—People (A Book of the Week Pick) “[A] quietly revelatory and gently gleaming gem of a book.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) Anna Quindlen’s trademark wisdom on family, friendship, and the ties that bind us are at the center of this novel about the power of love to transcend loss and triumph over adversity, by the author of Still Life with Bread Crumbs and One True Thing. When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie’s children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life. Over the course of the next year what saves them all is Annie, ever-present in their minds, loving but not sentimental, caring but nobody’s fool, a voice in their heads that is funny and sharp and remarkably clear. The power she has given to those who loved her is the power to go on without her. The lesson they learn is that no one beloved is ever truly gone. Written in Quindlen’s emotionally resonant voice and with her deep and generous understanding of people, After Annie is about hope, and about the unexpected power of adversity to change us in profound and indelible ways.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this clarion call to pick up a pen and find yourself from “one of our most astute chroniclers of modern life” (The New York Times Book Review), #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen shows us how anyone can write, and why everyone should. What really matters in life? What truly lasts in our hearts and minds? Where can we find community, history, humanity? In this lyrical new book, the answer is clear: through writing. This is a book for what Quindlen calls “civilians,” those who want to use the written word to become more human, more themselves. Write for Your Life argues that there has never been a more important time to stop and record what we are thinking and feeling. Using examples from past, present, and future—from Anne Frank to Toni Morrison, from love letters written after World War II to journal reflections from nurses and doctors today—Write for Your Life vividly illuminates the ways in which writing connects us to ourselves and to those we cherish. Drawing on her personal experiences not just as a writer but as a mother and daughter, Quindlen makes the case that recording our daily lives in writing is essential. When we write we not only look, we see; we not only react but reflect. Writing gives you something to hold onto in a changing world. “To write the present,” Quindlen says, “is to believe in the future.”

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Captures the angst and anxiety of modern life with . . . astute observations about interactions between the haves and have-nots, and the realities of life among the long-married.”—USA Today A provocative novel that explores what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a woman at a moment of reckoning, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Miller’s Valley and Still Life with Bread Crumbs. Some days Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life—except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. The owners watch one another’s children grow up. They use the same handyman. They trade gossip and gripes, and they maneuver for the ultimate status symbol: a spot in the block’s small parking lot. Then one morning, Nora returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the enviable dead-end block turns into a potent symbol of a divided city. The fault lines begin to open: on the block, at Nora’s job, and especially in her marriage. Praise for Alternate Side “[Anna] Quindlen’s quietly precise evaluation of intertwined lives evinces a keen understanding of and appreciation for universal human frailties.”—Booklist (starred review) “Exquisitely rendered . . . [Quindlen] is one of our most astute chroniclers of modern life. . . . [Alternate Side] has an almost documentary feel, a verisimilitude that’s awfully hard to achieve.”—The New York Times Book Review “An exceptional depiction of complex characters—particularly their weaknesses and uncertainties—and the intricacies of close relationships . . . Quindlen’s provocative novel is a New York City drama of fractured marriages and uncomfortable class distinctions.”—Publishers Weekly

Histoire d''amour, drames, secrets inavouables : à travers le destin d''une famille de Pennsylvanie, Anna Quindlen donne à lire tout un pan de l''histoire américaine de la seconde moitié du XX e siècle. Petite fille précoce et curieuse, Mimi mène une enfance protégée dans la ferme familiale. Il y a là Bud, son père cultivateur et répare-tout ; Miriam, sa mère infirmière ; ses deux frères, le taiseux Eddie et le caïd séducteur Tommy ; ainsi que Ruth, sa tante, qui, pour une raison étrange, ne s''éloigne jamais de la maison. Un monde rassurant, fait d''éclats de rire et de joie, que Mimi pense immuable. Mais nous sommes en 1966 et ces jours heureux sont comptés... La guerre du Vietnam qui laisse Tommy à jamais meurtri, la maladie qui frappe Bud, les drames passés de la tante Ruth... et cet impensable projet du gouvernement de transformer leur vallée en barrage. Ce monde que Mimi aime tant disparaîtrait englouti sous les eaux ? Qui désormais pour sauver la ferme et ses habitants ? Alors qu''elle envisageait de quitter le village pour suivre des études de médecine et retrouver son amour d''enfance, Mimi va devoir faire un terrible choix.

Rebecca hatvanéves, már nem sokat vár az élettől, mígnem... Valamikor híres fényképész volt, de mintha elapadt volna az ihlete, és amúgy is csökken a kereslet a képeire. Ott találja magát, ahol annyian a kortársai közül: a fia még rászorul (mert dolgozik ugyan, de ha pénzre van szüksége, hozzá fordul), a férje viszont elhagyta. Édesanyja öregek otthonában él, és még mindig híres zongoristának hiszi magát... Hogy anyagi gondjait megoldja, bérbe adja drága New York-i lakását, és kiköltözik vidékre. A házat fényképről választotta, és elképedten látja, mennyire rozoga. Meglepetésként éri az élővilág jelenléte is: mosómedve a padláson, kutya az ajtó előtt, csippel ellátott ragadozómadarak a magasles körül. A kisváros kedvesen, de némi gyanakvással fogadja a hírességet, Rebecca meg nem tudja eldönteni, lehet-e élni egyáltalán ilyen messze New Yorktól. De aztán talál új fényképtémát, új ügynököt, lesz új kiállítása... És megismerkedik egy férfival, aki látszólag egyáltalán nem illik hozzá. Hiszen csak egy tetőfedő... Az Amerikában és még számos országban régóta népszerű Anna Quindlen felejthetetlen regényt írt az élet hétköznapi csodáiról - meg az újrakezdésről, amiről annyian álmodozunk. „Egy csésze forró tea ez a regény, selymes és vigasztaló...” (USA Today)

Roman plein d''élégance, d''optimisme et de charme, l''émouvant portrait d''une femme qui pensait avoir remisé son cœur et son art au placard. Mais dans la campagne américaine, la vie est pleine de surprises, et les passions, souvent imprévisibles. Quitter New York : l''idée n''emballe pas Rebecca Winter, mais la photographe n''a plus le choix. Une carrière au point mort, des parents malades, un fils dont elle assume chaque déboire : Rebecca doit partir à la campagne, essayer de faire des économies en attendant de renouer avec le succès rencontré trente ans plus tôt, avec sa célèbre photo, Nature morte aux miettes de pain. Seule dans ce cottage plus proche de la cabane de jardin que d''une vraie maison, Rebecca panique : un raton laveur dans le grenier, ce toit qui prend l''eau ? Pourra-t-elle jamais survivre en province ? Mais bientôt, la farouche Rebecca se découvre de nouveaux amis : Sarah, la bavarde et sympathique pâtissière ; Jim, le charpentier ornithologue, qu''elle assiste dans ses observations de rapaces. Un homme de quarante ans, très secret, doté d''un magnétisme formidable auquel Rebecca n''est pas insensible. Et au contact de cette nature splendide, l''inspiration ne tarde pas à refaire surface... Et si à soixante ans, Rebecca pouvait encore se faire surprendre par la vie ? Et s''il ne tenait qu''à elle de lever la tête de son objectif, de sortir de cette Nature morte qui la retient prisonnière, d''oser s''ouvrir à nouveau à la vie ?

[The story] "begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life."--Publisher.

Presents a candid and personal account that explores what matters to middle-aged women and how they regard life stages.

What started as an ode to Quindlen''s aging black Labrador in her Newsweek column has become a life-affirming short book about happiness, in the tradition of A SHORT GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE and BEING PERFECT. In this wise little book, Anna Quindlen writes: "The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter, more compressed." Quindlen continues, with her trademark wonderful writing, sound wisdom and humor, to explain how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau, and how she''s learned how to enjoy life, in the simplest of ways, by watching him. She writes, "When I was a mixed-breed puppy, I could never have imagined how simple and basic contentment could be. And that''s what I''ve learned from watching Beau: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure myself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise my nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, "I smell bacon!"

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Anna Quindlen presents a “swift and compelling paean to the joys of books” (Booklist). “Like the columns she used to write for the New York Times, [How Reading Changed My Life] is tart, smart, full of quirky insights, lapidary, and a pleasure to read.”—Publishers Weekly “Reading has always been my home, my sustenance, my great invincible companion. . . . Yet of all the many things in which we recognize universal comfort—God, sex, food, family, friends—reading seems to be the one in which the comfort is most undersung, at least publicly, although it was really all I thought of, or felt, when I was eating up book after book, running away from home while sitting in a chair, traveling around the world and yet never leaving the room. . . . I read because I loved it more than any activity on earth.”—from How Reading Changed My Life

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “hypnotically interesting” (The Washington Post Book World) novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Miller’s Valley “[Anna Quindlen] writes passionately . . . painstakingly uncovering all the intensity, suspicion and primitive love that bonds mothers and daughters.”—The Boston Globe Ellen Gulden is enjoying her career as a successful magazine writer in New York City when she learns that her mother, Kate, is dying of cancer. Ellen’s father insists that she quit her job and return home to become a caregiver. A high-powered career woman, Ellen has never felt she had much in common with her mother, a homemaker and the heart of their family. Yet as Ellen begins to spend time with Kate, she discovers many surprising truths, not only about herself, but also about the woman she thought she knew so well. Later, when Ellen is accused of the mercy killing of her mother, she must not only defend her own life but make a difficult choice—either accept responsibility for an act she did not commit or divulge the name of the person she believes committed a painful act of love.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Anna Quindlen, hailed by the New York Times as “America’s resident sane person,” offers a collection of “engaging, fresh, [and] funny” (Chicago Tribune) essays about growing up, becoming a parent, spirituality, and more. “The lightning bugs are back. They are small right now, babies really, flying low to the ground as the lawn dissolves from green to black in the dusk. There are constellations of them outside the window; on, off, on, off. At first the little boy cannot see them; then, suddenly, he does. ‘Mommy, it’s magic,’ he say. “This is why I had children; because of the lightning bugs.” The voice is Anna Quindlen’s. But we know the hopes, dreams, fears, and wonder expressed in all her nonfiction, for most of us share them. Quindlen first vaulted to national attention with her “Life in the 30s” columns for The New York Times, and this wonderful collection of her early work shows why this Pulitzer Prize–winning author remains in the spotlight.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “Intimate and illuminating and, as is true of most anything Quindlen writes, well worth the read.”—People “A compelling and suspenseful [novel] that goes straight to the gut.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch For eighteen years Fran Benedetto kept her secret, hid her bruises. She stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father, and because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she saw the look on her ten-year-old son’s face, Fran finally made a choice—and ran for both their lives. Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. In this place she uses a name that isn’t hers, watches over her son, and tries to forget. For the woman who now calls herself Beth, every day is a chance to heal, to put together the pieces of her shattered self. And every day she waits for Bobby to catch up to her. Bobby always said he would never let her go, and despite the ingenuity of her escape, Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing: It is only a matter of time.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anna Quindlen comes “a splendid collection” of short essays that are “eloquent, powerful, compassionate, and droll” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) “Quindlen writes with rare insight, intelligence, and wit. Most of all she writes from the heart.”—The Buffalo News Thinking out loud is what Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Quindlen does best in this collection of her hugely popular New York Times columns. With her finger on the pulse of modern life, and her heart in a place we all recognize, she writes about the passions, politics, and peculiarities of Americans everywhere: “Some people go nuts when their children learn to pick out the ‘Moonlight Sonata’ on the piano. The day I realized my eldest child could read was one of the happiest days of my life.” “Discussions about the homeless always remind me of a woman who told me that she was damned if her tax dollars were going to pay for birth control for the poor. The question is not whether we will pay. It is what we want to pay for, and what works.” On subjects close to home and far away, Anna Quindlen remains a uniquely clear and incisive voice.

Anna Quindlen offers deep truths from her life to motivate and inspire you to become your most authentic self. “Trying to be perfect may be inevitable for people who are smart and ambitious and interested in the world and its good opinion. . . . What is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” In Being Perfect, Anna Quindlen shares wisdom that, perhaps without knowing it, you have longed to hear: about “the perfection trap,” the price you pay when you become ensnared in it, and the key to setting yourself free. Quindlen believes that when your success looks good to the world but doesn’t feel good in your heart, it isn’t success at all. She asks you to set aside your friends’ advice, what your family and co-workers demand, and what society expects, and look at the choices you make every day. When you ask yourself why you are making them, Quindlen encourages you to give this answer: For me. “Because they are what I want, or wish for. Because they reflect who and what I am. . . . That way lies dancing to the melodies spun out by your own heart.” At the core of this beautiful book lies the secret of authentic success, the inspiration to embrace your own uniqueness and live the life that is undeniably your own, rich in fulfillment and meaning.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A superb novel about two sisters, the true meaning of success, and the qualities in life that matter most from beloved, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anna Quindlen “The dialogue sparkles, the insights are right on . . . and the characters are appealing. . . . [Rise and Shine] has humor, heartbreak and drama.”—The Charlotte Observer It’s an otherwise ordinary Monday when Meghan Fitzmaurice’s perfect life hits a wall. A household name as the host of Rise and Shine, the country’s highest-rated morning talk show, Meghan cuts to a commercial break—but not before she mutters two forbidden words into her open mike. In an instant, it’s the end of an era, not only for Meghan, who is unaccustomed to dealing with adversity, but also for her younger sister, Bridget, a social worker in the Bronx who has always lived in Meghan’s long shadow. The effect of Meghan’s on-air truth telling reverberates through both their lives, affecting Meghan’s son, husband, friends, and fans, as well as Bridget’s perception of her sister, their complex childhood, and herself. What follows is a story about how, in very different ways, the Fitzmaurice women adapt, survive, and manage to bring the whole teeming world of New York to heel by dint of their smart mouths, quick wits, and the powerful connection between them that even the worst tragedy cannot shatter.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winner Anna Quindlen offers wisdom, opinions, insights, and reflections about current events and modern life in this provocative and inspiring book. “A tour de force for our time, [Loud and Clear] is equally as compelling as a look at public events as it is a reflection on being a woman and on motherhood.”—The Sunday Oklahoman With her trademark insight and her special ability to convey the impact public events have on ordinary lives, Anna Quindlen here combines commentary on American society and the world at large with reflections on being a woman, a writer, and a mother. In these pieces, first written for Newsweek and The New York Times, Loud and Clear takes on topics ranging from social change to raising children, from the political and emotional aftermath of September 11 to personal values, from the impact on individuals of global events to the growth that can be gained by spending summer days staring into the middle distance. Grounding the public in the private, connecting people to each other and to the greater world, Quindlen encourages us to develop authentic lives, even as she serves as a catalyst for political and social change.

When a baby is left on their doorstep, the lives of elderly, town matriarch Lydia Blessing and her down-and-out caretaker, Skip, are transformed. Skip wants to keep the baby and is surprised when Lydia wants to help. Together, they decide to keep the baby a secret between them-- and we discover that they have secrets of their own, secrets of the past that have made them who they are today.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen’s classic reflection on a meaningful life makes a perfect gift for any occasion. “Life is made of moments, small pieces of silver amidst long stretches of tedium. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves now to live, really live . . . to love the journey, not the destination.” In this treasure of a book, Anna Quindlen, the bestselling novelist and columnist, reflects on what it takes to “get a life”—to live deeply every day and from your own unique self, rather than merely to exist through your days. “Knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us,” Quindlen writes, “because unless you know the clock is ticking, it is so easy to waste our days, our lives.” Her mother died when Quindlen was nineteen: “It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on for the darkest possible reason. . . . I learned something enduring, in a very short period of time, about life. And that was that it was glorious, and that you had no business taking it for granted.” But how to live from that perspective, to fully engage in our days? In A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen guides us with an understanding that comes from knowing how to see the view, the richness in living.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “charming, compassionate little masterpiece” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Pulitzer–Prize winning author Anna Quindlen traces the coming-of-age of a young girl struggling to find her way within the tangle of her quirky, loving Irish-Catholic family. “A small triumph . . . elaborate and playful . . . honest and deeply felt . . . Here is the Quindlen wit, the sharp eye for details of class and manners, the ardent reading of domestic lives.”—The New York Times (Best Books of the Year) It is the 1960s, in suburban New York City. Maggie Scanlan and her family are in the thrall of her powerful grandfather Jack Scanlan. In the summer of her twelfth year, Maggie is desperately trying to master the object lessons her grandfather fills her head with. But there is too much going on to concentrate. Everything at home is in upheaval, her grandfather is changing, and Maggie is unsure if what she wants is worth having. . . .

A family finds a way to preserve the feeling of Christmas into the new year by filling a basket with the pine needles from the Christmas tree.