Roberta Rubin, the Book Stall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka, Ill.
My favorite book of the upcoming season is Laura Moriarty's The Rest of Her Life (Hyperion, Aug.). It continues to resonate with me long after I finished reading it. Laura Moriarty “gets it”—she gets into the head of an 18-year-old who has just had a tragedy happen to her; she gets into the heart and mind of her mother, and her mother's friend, Eva, and her father. And certainly, she understands the emotional fragility of the mother of the young girl who was killed. Not only does the story demand our rapt attention and empathy, but each one of its characters stands out as a real person—someone one could know—who is living through a human tragedy. The Rest of Her Life is intimate to one's core. While Moriarty's writing reminds me of Ann Patchett, Louise Erdrich and Joyce Carol Oates; her voice is unique and cuts to the quick. I loved this book from the first page to the last.
