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"Elise Juska is so good at describing people, places, and moments that you not only picture them, you feel them." -- Curtis Sittenfeld Praise for The Blessings: "There''s no shortage of novels about the quirks and tragedies of large families, but The Blessings is a uniquely poignant, prismatic look at an Irish-Catholic clan as it rallies after losing one of its own." -- Entertainment Weekly "A bighearted novel. . . . Juska''s moving, multifaceted portrait of the Blessing family gleams like a jewel." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer "In the tradition of Elizabeth Berg''s and Alice McDermott''s work, The Blessings is a knowing portrait of a sprawling Irish-American family in Philly across the last thirty years, in all their shared strength and separate weaknesses. Elise Juska is deft and tender, letting us get close to her characters in their most vulnerable moments. The ties that bind are never simple, and often painful, but as one daughter acknowledges, ''these are the hidden intimacies, the private exchanges, on which she builds her life.''" -- Stewart O''Nan "Several generations of the Blessings, a Philadelphia-based, Irish-American family, come beautifully to life in a deceptively simple tale that examines the foibles, disappointments and passions that tie family members together. . . The author brings a depth of understanding to the human condition. . . . the reader leaves feeling lucky to have spent some time in their presence." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Juska''s compelling narrative tackles complex issues about society''s judgment of and responsibility for others." -- Shelf Awareness Praise for If We Had Known: "A tender, whip-smart meditation on the origins and aftermath of tragedy. Here Juska asks us an important and quietly devastating question: In what ways are we responsible to and for each other?" -- Carmen Maria Machado, author of the National Book Award Finalist Her Body and Other Parties "What a gripping and wise book this is." -- Robin Black, author of Life Drawing ...
About the author
Elise Juska’s previous novels include If We Had Known and The Blessings. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Missouri Review, Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, the Hudson Review, Electric Literature, and other publications. She is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize from Ploughshares, and her work has been cited by the Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. She lives with her family outside Philadelphia.
Summary
A New York Times Editors' Choice • A People Best Book
“Masterful storytelling and memorable characters. . . . Elise Juska's best book yet.”—Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River and The God of the Woods
“I loved this story about the importance of long friendships. . . . A perfectly crafted page-turner.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon
From the beloved author of the “uniquely poignant” (Entertainment Weekly) novel The Blessings comes a gripping story about three friends in their forties forced to reckon with their lives during a college reunion in coastal Maine.
It’s June 2021, and three old college friends are heading to New England and the twenty-fifth reunion that was delayed the year before. Hope, a stay-at-home mom, is desperate for a return to her beloved campus, a reprieve from her tense marriage, and the stresses of pandemic parenting. Adam is hesitant to leave his bucolic but secluded life with his wife and their young sons. Single mother Polly hasn’t been back to campus in more than twenty years and has no interest in returning—but changes her mind when her struggling teenage son suggests a road trip.
But the reunion isn’t what any of them had envisioned. Hope, always upbeat, is no longer able to downplay the pressures of life at home or the cracks in her longstanding friendships. Adam finds himself energized by the memory of his carefree, reckless younger self—which only reminds him how much has changed since those halcyon days. Polly cannot ignore the ghosts of her college years, including a closely guarded secret. When the weekend takes a startling turn, all three find themselves reckoning with the past—and how it will bear on the future.
Beautifully observed and insightful, Reunion is a page-turning novel about the highs and lows of friendship from a writer at the height of her powers.
