Synopses & Reviews
No one writes more accurately than Ellen Gilchrist about the quandaries that arise when we realize our heart's desire. In
Sarah Conley, Gilchrist introduces her first set of new characters in a decade, including the eponymous heroine, a woman who struggles mightily to get what she wants. And what Sarah Conley wants turns out to be a good deal more than she bargained for.
While an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, Sarah fell in love with a young man, but wound up marrying his brother a tangled drama of missteps and misunderstood intentions that led to bad feelings and burned bridges. Three decades later, divorced and living in New York City, Sarah has become a celebrated magazine editor and writer. Yet she has remained cut off from the South until a call comes saying that her old college sweetheart, the love of her life, is about to become a widower.
The man who broke her heart by marrying someone else is suddenly free again. The old magic is still there, but as Sarah leaves for Paris to work on a screenplay, she discovers that her miraculous second chance is fraught with complications.
Gilchrist has crafted an unforgettable and intriguing novel that is funny and painful, warm and real.
Review
Ellen Gilchrist is a wonderful writer, with a winning grace and humanness...moving and tender and tough and unsentimental at the same time." Chicago Tribune
Review
"National Book Award winner Gilchrist (author, most recently, of Courts of Love) has blessed her followers with another entertaining work of fiction." Library Journal
Review
"Gilchrist keeps you in the palm of her hand when she tells a story, even if it's one that won't be remembered half an hour after it's over." Kirkus Review
Synopsis
When Sarah Conley, a celebrated magazine editor and writer in New York City, returns home to the South to visit an ailing childhood friend, she finds herself forced to choose between pursuing her career and rekindling her relationship with the man she has long considered the love of her life. In a novel widely praised for its energy, passion, and wit, Ellen Gilchrist brings into brilliant focus the quandaries that arise when we realize our heart's desire.
Synopsis
A New York City magazine editor and novelist returns home to the South when her closest childhood friend falls ill--and finds herself forced to choose between pursuing her career and rekindling her relationship with the man she has long considered the love of her life. NPR sponsorship.
About the Author
Ellen Gilchrist is the critically acclaimed author of ten previous books, including the National Book Award-winning Victory Over Japan and, most recently, Starcarbon. Some of the stories in this collection were first published in the Atlantic and Story. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.