A Reason to See You Again: A Novel

(Hardback)

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Description

FromNew York Timesbestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling novel of family, following a troubled mother and her two daughters over forty years and through a swiftly changing American landscape as they seek lives they can fully claim as their own.

The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyones lives soon take a dramatic turn.

Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of twenty-one to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her.

But they each learn in different ways that running from the past cant save youand then must make life-altering decisions about what they want their family to be and what they need to move forward.

Beginning in the 1970s and spanning forty years, A Reason to See You Again takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through motherhood, the American workforce, the tech industry, the self-help movement, inherited trauma, the ever-evolving ways we communicate with one another, and the many unexpected forms that love can take.

Reviews

I loved leaping through time with the four Cohen womenFrieda, Nancy, Shelly, and Jess. Each woman is intelligent and self-sabotagingthe way we all can beand they love each other fiercely, often from a careful distance. Attenbergs writing is sharp and incisiveits a pleasure to watch the patterns she created unfold over forty years of these womens lives. Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward The vicissitudes of [Attenbergs] characters are undeniably absorbing. Kirkus Reviews "Entertaining and empathetic. . . . Attenberg knows how to imperil her characters and love them at the same time. . . . Readers will happily sit with these women through it all. Booklist (starred review) "When their father passes, the Cohen sisters and their mother seem rudderless and strike out in opposite directions. Spanning 40 years, this moving saga asks if love can heal brokenness." Saturday Evening Post Attenbergs nuanced latest . . . . is carried along by deliciously realistic descriptions of the Cohens complex relationships. Its an admirable portrait of a distinctly unhappy family. Publishers Weekly Attenberg knows where to shine a spotlight to reveal characters' personalities and dynamics . . . . [Her] characters are as loveable as they are maddening, and the combination of choices and luck makes the novel's events feel as randomand genuineas real life. . . . [A] masterful dysfunctional family story. Shelf Awareness Glimmers of humor lift a narrative that time-hops and head-hops, as the Cohen women come together and fall apart, squabble and make up. . . . Attenbergs fans will enjoy this novel, as will those who like sharply observed dysfunctional mother-daughter stories. Library Journal

Author Bio

Jami Attenberg is aNew York Timesbestselling author of seven books of fiction, includingThe MiddlesteinsandAll Grown Up; a memoir,I Came All This Way to Meet You; and, most recently, 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. She is the founder of the annual #1000WordsofSummer project, and maintains the popular Craft Talk newsletter year-round. Her work has been published in sixteen languages. She lives in New Orleans.