{"product_id":"9781471174438-secondhand-alternate-side","title":"Alternate Side","description":"For  fans of Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler  comes a brilliantly provocative novel from the  Richard and Judy Book Club  and  Number One bestselling  author Anna Quindlen.  ' Mesmerizing . Quindlen makes her characters so richly alive, so believable, that it's impossible not to feel every doubt and dream they harbour . . .  Overwhelmingly moving '  New York Times     Anna Quindlen follows her highly-praised novel  Miller's Valley  - 'reads like a companion to Elizabeth Strout's  Olive Kitteridge ', Elisabeth Egan - with a  captivating  novel about  money, class and self-discovery  set in the heart of  New York  where the tensions in a tight-knit neighbourhood - and a seemingly happy marriage - are exposed by an unexpected act of violence.     There are days when Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life - except when there's a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? Nora has never stopped loving New York, and their street has become a safe harbour, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. The residents watch one another's children grow up. They trade gossip and gripes, and they manoeuvre for the ultimate status symbol: a spot in the block's small parking lot.  Then, into their secure, privileged midst comes an unexpected act of violence and their enviable neighbourhood turns into a potent symbol of a divided city.     This is a novel of domesticity, of the jarring cacophony of city life and of daily routine and conversation and expectation being suddenly, awkwardly disrupted. It is about the change of dynamics wrought within a family when children leave home and the fading of love within an outwardly settled marriage.        Utterly absorbing and impeccably observed,  Alternate Side  explores, too, what it means to be a mother, a wife and a woman at a moment of reckoning.     'Qualities and  shades of love  are this writer's strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so much  truth and heart  that one is carried away on a tidal wave of involvement and concern'   Elizabeth Jane Howard     'I'm a big fan of US author Anna Quindlen's sharp writing. Her latest novel,  Alternate Side , is a clear-eyed look at a long marriage, written with  wit  and  warmth '  Good Housekeeping  'A book about being a mother, a wife and a woman at a moment of reckoning, this is an  acutely observed  story'  Stylist Books   'Middle age proves treacherous ground in this  smart comedy of manners ...  Insightful , acerbic and  pleasingly tinged with melancholy '  Mail on Sunday","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50578881446107,"sku":"9781471174438-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/c4cc7286-58fd-4de4-874d-3207cd2cb614.jpg?v=1791191406","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/9781471174438-secondhand-alternate-side","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}