A promise to Arlette

A promise to Arlette

Serena Burdick

Book - 2025

"With the scope of a saga and the heart of a thriller, this is an evocative historical novel following a married couple whose idyllic 1950s suburban life is threatened by the promises they made during World War II. Sidney and Ida Whipple are living the suburban 1950s American dream, complete with two children and a white picket fence, which didn't seem possible when they first met at the height of WWII in France. Reveling in the present, they can almost convince themselves that their past is behind them. But when their neighbors show off a newly purchased Man Ray photograph, Ida comes face-to-face with the person she loved and lost in the war: Arlette. Only Ida knows the truth about the photograph, and why it can't possibly b...e authentic. In an attempt to right past wrongs, she travels to California vowing to confront Man Ray. Sidney wakes to find his wife is missing, the photograph in question stolen, and all the secrets they've tried to bury come rushing back. With his daughters in tow, he travels after Ida, hoping to forge a new path together. Instead, their sojourn leads to a shocking discovery that could pull their family apart in this sweeping, unforgettable story about love and friendship, trust and betrayal, and how promises made, broken, and ultimately renewed, can determine our fate"--

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Subjects
Man Ray, > 1890-1976 > Fiction.
Spouses > Fiction.
Photographs > Fiction.
Secrecy > Fiction.
Lesbians > Fiction.
Conjoints > Romans, nouvelles, etc.
Photographies > Romans, nouvelles, etc.
Secret > Romans, nouvelles, etc.
Domestic fiction.
Historical fiction.
Novels.
Romans.
Genres
Domestic fiction
Historical fiction
Novels
Romans
Published
New York : Atria Books 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Serena Burdick (author)
Physical Description
pages cm
ISBN
9781668070307
9781668070314
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Burdick (The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey) spins a beguiling tale of a WWII war bride whose memories of her earlier life in France are triggered by a photograph. In 1952, Ida Whipple lives a seemingly idyllic life in Lexington, Mass., as mother to two young daughters and wife to Sidney, a former Air Force gunner she met during the war. When the Whipples' neighbor Ellen, whom Sidney jilted when he married Ida, brags about her acquisition of a photograph purportedly by Man Ray, Ida is shocked to recognize the photo as a fake taken by her French friend, Arlette, who is one of the image's masked nude subjects, along with Ida. The photograph also resurrects Ida's long-buried guilt over not saving Arlette from being captured by the Nazis. Ida steals the photo and travels with it to California, where Man Ray lives, determined to find out why it was credited to him. Sidney, desperate to get his wife back, drives cross-country with the girls in search of her. As Ida and Sidney make their separate journeys westward, they uncover startling revelations. The plot unfolds at a breakneck clip, and Burdick artfully highlights the difficult choices her central characters made to ensure their survival, even if it meant going against their moral compasses. This resonates. Agent: Stephanie Delman, Trellis Literary Management. (June)

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