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Title details for The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell - Wait list

The House We Grew Up In

A Novel

by Lisa Jewell
ebook
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Wait time: At least 6 months
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0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: At least 6 months
From the New York Times bestselling author of None of This Is True and Then She Was Gone comes an unforgettable saga that follows the Bird family and how one tragedy ripples throughout their lives for years.
Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it's their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children's art, to her husband's chagrin.

Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county's worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in—to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 12, 2014

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781476703015

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781476703015
      • File size: 7125 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 23, 2014
      Jewell’s most recent novel (after Before I Met You) is a melodrama starring the Bird clan: happy-go-lucky mother Lorelai, patient father Colin, headstrong eldest child Meg, meek Beth, and dissimilar twins Rory and Rhys. “They lived in a honey-colored house that sat hard up against the pavement of a picture-perfect Cotswolds village and stretched out beyond into three-quarters of an acre of rambling half-kempt gardens.” The narrative alternates between 2011 and flashbacks to the kids’ childhoods, and the reader sees Lorelai’s eccentricities (including her propensity for hoarding) gradually begin to weigh her family down. Easter is Lorelai’s favorite holiday, replete with massive egg hunts and festivities, but when a catastrophe occurs, it forever alters the course of the Birds’ lives. Each member of the family begins to drift away from the others, and the subsequent years find them dealing with affairs, abandonment, and death. Years later, following another loss, the family once again gathers and is forced to confront its troubled past. Jewell keeps the reader engrossed with her characters’ winding, divergent paths.

    • Library Journal

      May 15, 2015

      Through an email trail, Lorelei's adult children painstakingly unravel the progress of her dysfunctional illness with humor and love, while taking stock of its heartbreaking effects on the entire family. VERDICT An insightful, dramatic look at the condition of hoarding. (LJ 5/15/14)

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      May 15, 2014

      Jewell's (Before I Met You) latest novel is a dramatic trip through the dysfunctional lives of the Bird family: realistic Meg, wistful Beth, twins Rory and Rhys, and their parents, Colin and Lorelei. The Birds live in a charming village in the Cotswolds and hold elaborate egg hunts in the garden of their home every Easter. Then a tragic event begins to tear the Birds apart, scattering family members. Lorelei starts hoarding as the Bird children grow up and make mistakes of their own out in the world. When she dies unexpectedly, they come back to face their past and attempt to figure out what went so wrong with their family. VERDICT The plot relies heavily on the melodramatic decisions made by the Birds, occasionally becoming ridiculous. Still, it's a page-turner that will appeal to readers of women's fiction.--Mara Dabrishus, Ursuline Coll. Lib., Pepper Pike, OH

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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