Wait: A Novel

(Paperback)

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A young woman reunites with her teenage sister in their childhood home on Nantucket Island after their mother disappears-an alluring coming-of-age novel from the acclaimed author of It Is Wood, It Is Stone. "Wait simultaneously illuminates the precariousness of young womanhood and existing as an immigrant in the U.S., while showing the resourcefulness and strength needed to survive. Strength derived not from the individual alone, but from their ties to their community- their sisters, mothers, friends, and neighbors. Reading this novel, I could almost feel the Nantucket sea breeze whipping against my face." -Daphne Palasi Andreades, author of Brown Girls A young woman reunites with her teenage sister in their childhood home on Nantucket Island after their mother is deported in this alluring coming-of-age novel that "movingly tackles serious issues in one of America's premier vacation spots" (NPR). "Gabriella Burnham knows . . . the Nantucket of undocumented immigrants and broken families. . . . This tender novel allows us to rejoice when tiny windows of opportunities begin to open."-Imbolo Mbue, The New York Times Book Review A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Elise is out dancing the night before her college graduation when her younger sister, Sophie, calls to tell her that their mom is nowhere to be found. Elise leaves on the next flight back to her childhood home, Nantucket Island, for the first time in nearly four years. The sisters soon learn that their mother was stopped by police on her way home from work and deported to S o Paulo, Brazil. Intent on bringing her mother back, Elise stays and secures the same job she had in high school- monitoring endangered birds. Meanwhile, her best friend from college, Sheba-a gregarious socialite and heir to a famed children's toy company-reveals that she has inherited her grandfather's summer mansion on Nantucket. Elise's worlds collide as she confronts the emotional and material conditions that have fractured her family, as well as the life in Brazil that her mother has had to leave behind. Told with penetrating insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Wait is a story about a family swimming against the social currents that erode bonds- housing precarity, immigration systems, and inherited wealth. But it is also a story about love, wit, and sisterhood, and how two sisters cling to each other in the midst of cataclysmic change, all the while dreaming about a better future.

Reviews

Burnham leaves little doubt about how much she understands the people who populate her novel.... Her compassion for them is evidentand, yes, that includes the affluent ones who come across as arrogant and snobbish.... There is no easy way out for any of them, but this tender novel allows us to rejoice when tiny windows of opportunities begin to open.Imbolo Mbue, The New York Times Book Review

Wait movingly tackles serious issues in one of Americas premier vacation spots. It is a commendable accomplishment.Heller McAlpin, NPR

Wait isbeautiful, heartfelt, and transcendentacarefully craftedportrayal of motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship put to the ultimate test.I found myself caring deeply about these charactersand wanting to know desperately what was going to happen to them next. Wait is also the best account of year-round Nantucket Island that Ive ever read.Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Awardwinning author of In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, and Travels with George

Wait is a limpid and lovely, powerful and affecting novel of family ties, sisterhoods tender mercies, and the material conditions that shape our lives. Gabriella Burnham has given us a novel to remember, one that takes us to Nantucket and beyondand we should gladly go.Sarah Thankam Mathews, National Book Awardnominated author of All This Could Be Different

Wise and richly layered, Wait is on one level a tender coming-of-age story set on the beautiful beaches of Nantucket, and on another a powerful inquiry into who gets to lay claim to American soil and call it home. Burnhams nuanced exploration of friendship and sisterhood, inherited wealth and housing insecurity, birthright and disenfranchisement will stay with me. I could not put this book down and continued to think about it long after I emerged from its propulsive pages.Qian Julie Wang, author of Beautiful Country

Imbued with hope and loss, Wait isa stunning examination of homecoming and familial devotion. Burnhamsprose is sensuous and exacting. She writes about sisterhood, daughterhood, and friendship withdeep wisdom and exquisite precision.Kayla Maiuri, author of Mother in the Dark

As I read this novel, I could almost feel the Nantucket sea breeze whipping against my face and, at other times, caressing me.Daphne Palasi Andreades, author of Brown Girls

Author Bio

Gabriella Burnham's debut novel, It Is Wood, It Is Stone, was named a best book of the year by Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Publishers Weekly, and Good Housekeeping. She holds an MFA in creative writing from St. Joseph's College and has been awarded fellowships to Yaddo and MacDowell, where she was named a Harris Center Fellow. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Harper's Bazaar. Burnham and her partner live in Brooklyn, New York, with their two rescue cats, Galleta and Franz.