Synopses & Reviews
In this heart-wrenching story of an open adoption gone wrong, Caroline Leavitt reveals the astonishing power of family bonds and maternal love. Sara, sixteen, is in denial about her pregnancy and too far along for an abortion. Her once-devoted boyfriend has disappeared so Sara decides her only option is an open adoption with George and Eva, a couple desperate for a child. After the birth it's clear Sara has a bond with the child that Eva can't duplicate and Eva and George make a drastic decision, with devastating consequences for them all.
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"A piercing spin on the theme of Romeo and Juliet. Leavitt makes this story refreshingly new." Carole Goldberg, The Hartford Courant
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"In this pull-at-your-heart novel, Leavitt once again proves how adept she is at creating fully fleshed characters....This is a wonderful story of family relationships, the choices we make, and whom we can count on." Library Journal
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"Wrenchingly captures the rhythms of family attachments the simmering resentments, sweet hopes, the blinding, protective love. Ripe for movie adaptation." Booklist
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"A sadly familiar tale by Leavitt, though ably written in a straightforward style: likely to appeal to teenagers and their parents as well." Kirkus Reviews
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"Heartfelt, filled with humanity, this story about the different forms of family bonds is a joy to read." Elizabeth Strout, author of Amy and Isabelle
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"The beauty of Caroline Leavitt's writing is in her flawless depiction of our human flaws. In Girls in Trouble, we ache for Sara, whose youthful decision will color the rest of her life a poignant story of family and love, of what we lose, and sometimes, what we find again." Gail Tsukiyama, author of Dreaming Water
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"Kept me pinned to the page, swept along in an intense emotional journey with characters so real they seemed like friends. A beautifully written, moving and very wise book." Kate Grenville, Orange Prize-winning author of The Idea of Perfection
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"Astonishing...there is a radiant joy that shines through it...a novel as rich and complex as it is meticulous." Laura Kasischke, author of The Life Before Her Eyes
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"A page-turner with rare emotional accuracy and tender fairness to its constellation of characters. A generous and poignant novel." Joan Silber, author of Lucky Us and In My Other Life
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"A complex, multilayered, unsentimental tale of longing, greed, selfishness, compassion, confusion, rejection, terror and absolute, overwhelming love. I loved this beautiful book, and the key it offers us, opening up the secrets of how families really work." Carolyn See, author of Making a Literary Life
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"What makes Caroline Leavitt's work so remarkable is her ability to conjure a whole range of disparate and difficult characters onto the page and to make us care deeply about each and all of them. Girls in Trouble is both utterly engrossing and richly satisfying." Margot Livesey, author of Eva Moves the Furniture
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"A touching, heartfelt story showing that love can be a tangled journey" Sandra Benitez, author of A Place Where the Sea Remembers and The Weight of All Things
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"Sara Rothman could be anybody's daughter...but her frank, warm, wise, gripping story, Girls in Trouble, could only be Caroline Leavitt's." Abby Frucht, author of Polly's Ghost and Are You Mine?
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"Leavitt's heroine was pregnant at sixteen, and so was I....This book made me not only want to talk about what happened to me, but to claim it." Suzanne Beecher, Chapter-a-Day Bookclubs and Working Mother book columnist
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"Given the hot topic of this novel open adoptions gone wrong you'd expect a finger-pointing, too PC-tone. But Leavitt's surprising take will get your book group really talking." Glamour
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"[U]neven but earnest....An unflinching depiction of maternal need and the dynamics of adoption, this tale is a sharp reminder of the importance of honesty in life decisions." Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Sara is sixteen and pregnant. Her once-devoted boyfriend seems to have disappeared, so she decides her best and only option is an open adoption with George and Eva, a couple desperate for a child. After the birth it's clear Sara has a bond with the child that Eva can't seem to duplicate. When it seems that Sara cannot let go, Eva and George make a drastic decision, with devastating consequences for all of them.
Synopsis
The longings of first love. The intense emotions of open adoption. And the price of betrayal.
Synopsis
"A poignant story of family and love, of what we lose, and sometimes, what we find again."
- Gail Tsukiyama, author of Dreaming Water
Synopsis
In this heart-wrenching story of an open adoption gone wrong, Caroline Leavitt reveals the astonishing power of family bonds and maternal love. Sara, sixteen, is in denial about her pregnancy and too far along for an abortion. Her once-devoted boyfriend has disappeared so Sara decides her only option is an open adoption with George and Eva, a couple desperate for a child. After the birth it's clear Sara has a bond with the child that Eva can't duplicate and Eva and George make a drastic decision, with devastating consequences for them all.
About the Author
Caroline Leavitt is the author of seven novels, including Coming Back To Me and Living Other Lives. A book columnist for the Boston Globe, her writing has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Parenting, Redbook, and more. She teaches writing online at UCLA and lives with her husband, writer Jeff Tamarkin, and their young son in Hoboken, New Jersey.