Synopses & Reviews
Lush, compelling, and unforgettable -- an epic tale of motherhood and an urgent narrative of vulnerability and power from the author of the acclaimed Into the Forest.Windfalls is a passionate story of motherhood -- both tender and tough -- that takes an unflinching look at the many choices facing every woman. Young and pregnant, Cerise and Anna make very different decisions about their lives. While teenage Cerise struggles to support herself and her young daughter, Anna finishes college, marries, and later gives birth to two daughters of her own. After the birth of her second child, a tragic accident tears Cerise's life apart, and she loses her already tenuous position in society. As Windfalls progresses, Cerise and Anna seem destined to approach each other, their stories dramatically interwoven. When finally their lives intersect, each woman emerges stronger, inspired by what she sees in the other, changed by what she learns.
Jean Hegland's debut novel Into the Forest was "beautifully written...impeccably authentic" (Kirkus Reviews). In its successor, she delves even deeper into the human heart, taking an unflinching look at the choices facing every woman. A remarkable book from an accomplished writer, Windfalls is hard to put down and impossible to forget.
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"A vivid, lightly fictionalized Motherhood 101 as two women, worlds apart, find common ground in facing the challenges of child-raising....Deftly rendered portraits of two 'poster Moms' of today." Kirkus Reviews
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"[A] moving if rather programmatic second novel....The result is a powerful, life-changing experience for both of them, bringing Hegland's novel to a poignant, thought-provoking conclusion." Publishers Weekly
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"[P]owerfully imagined and beautifully written....Hegland's first novel was picked up by a major publisher after it caught the attention of both booksellers and readers, and her second lives up to its promise." Meredith Parets, Booklist
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"Hegland...interweaves Anna's and Cerise's stories to create a powerful, extremely moving tale about motherhood, the choices we make, and the impact we can have on one another. Highly recommended." Library Journal
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"Jean Hegland is a master storyteller, capable of breaking and warming your heart in equal measure. She captures real life on these pages. Windfalls is a wonderful book of family and hard-won grace. I cannot recommend it highly enough: Hegland's characters will become part of your life." Roy Parvin, author of In the Snow Forest
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"Jean Hegland is a compassionate novelist whose characters are at once archetypal and personal. In Windfalls, she has created an elegy to motherhood in all its painful, beautiful complexity." Joelle Fraser, author of The Territory of Men
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"Harrowing and vividly real, Windfalls offers a lyrical portrayal of two women's lives, one of privilege, one of poverty. Hegland writes with precision about the many facets of motherhood the necessary courage and the inevitable compromise. Her book is a terrific act of sympathy and understanding." Lisa Michaels, author of Grand Ambition
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"As in Into the Forest, Jean Hegland continues to ask the questions most of us avoid, and offers answers that surprise and sustain us all." Kathleen Alcalá, author of Treasures in Heaven
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"Here is a lovely novel by a writer who understands the consequences of the greatest blessing we can bestow upon one another, that of our physical touch; and who knows that all we really have in common in this world are the ways we can be broken." Don J. Snyder, author of Of Time and Memory
Synopsis
Young and pregnant, Cerise and Anna make two very different decisions about their lives as the author of Into the Forest explores the very essence and complexity of womanhood, and what it is to be a mother.
About the Author
Jean Hegland lives in northern California with her husband and three children. Windfalls is her second novel.