Review by Booklist Review
A reunion of her teenage field hockey teammates has 53-year-old Gwen wondering about her long-lost friend Isabella, who was her constant companion up until marriage, work, and motherhood got in the way. Now, Izzy seems to have vanished--she has no social media presence, and search results come up empty. Determined to reconnect, Gwen sets off on a quest, tracking down Izzy's friends, family, exes, and former co-workers. What she finds is curious--several people have similar stories about Izzy suddenly vanishing from their lives. Does Izzy have something to hide, or is she just hiding? And if she's disappeared from so many people's lives over the years, why does it feel so personal? Morrey (Clover Hendry's Day Off, 2024) explores the common desire to recapture one's youth in this tale of midlife misadventure. Gwen's struggle with what her life means now that her kids are grown and her professional life has fizzled is relatable, and the comic quest to find Izzy is underscored by a wistful melancholy. Readers who liked Fran Littlewood's Amazing Grace Adams (2023) will enjoy Gwen's expedition to rekindle her lost friendship.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The sparkling latest from Morrey (The Love Story of Missy Carmichael) follows a woman with boundary issues and too much time on her hands as she searches for a long-lost friend. After spending a weekend in the country with friends from school, Gwen, 53, becomes obsessed with tracking down her former bestie Isabella, who fell out of touch with their friend group 15 years earlier. She visits Isabella's reserved parents, and their cryptic comments (Isabella "values her privacy.... After everything that happened"), coupled with the espionage podcast she's been listening to, convince her that Isabella is a spy. Consumed by the case and annoyed with her neglectful husband, she follows a lead to Rome. As she gets closer to the truth, she learns as much about her own weaknesses and preconceptions as she does about Isabella, and she begins to find her way toward a life of "color and vibrancy and dynamism and excitement." With its wild goose chase plot and quirky cast of characters, including Isabella's "modest, restrained, and faintly apologetic" parents and Gwen's mother-in-law, "a gold-plated, X-rated, permanently aerated March Hare," the novel moves briskly along, and there's plenty of wisdom about long-term friendship and midlife crises beneath the fizzy surface. It's a rewarding tale of second chances. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (Aug.)
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