You Are the Love of My Life: A Novel - Tapa dura

"Susan Shreve is a terrific storyteller who always brings her characters to vivid, sympathetic life. You Are the Love of my Life is my favorite of her books." -- Hilma Wolitzer "The high price of a truth concealed is at the center of this remarkable, ultimately hopeful novel. Susan Shreve reveals her characters and their lives with empathy, wisdom, and, best of all, not a whiff of condescension ." -- Ron Rash "The corrosive power of family secrets is at the heart of this gripping tale-a beautifully written page-turner that kept me in its thrall until the very end." -- Dani Shapiro "With her engaging tale and prose as fluid as Sue Miller's or Anna Quindlen's, if quirkier, Shreve hits the commercial bull's eye." -- Kirkus Reviews "Starred review. Handles complex themes of identity, loyalty, privacy, and commitment with finesse, delicacy, and insight . . . a worthy book club recommendation." -- Booklist "Graceful moments of connection nestled within tales of discord and deception . . . subtly convincing. " -- Donna Rifkind - Washington Post

It is 1973 and Watergate is on everyone's lips. Lucy Painter is a children's book illustrator and a single mother of two. She leaves New York and the married father of her children to live in a tightly knit Washington neighborhood in the house where she grew up and where she discovered her father's suicide. Lucy hopes for a fresh start, but her life is full of secrets: her children know nothing of her father's death or the identity of their own father. As the new neighbors enter their insular lives, her family's safety and stability become threatened. From a writer whose "unique presentation of human experience makes reading a delight" (Elizabeth Strout), You Are the Love of My Life is a story of how shame leads to secrets, secrets to lies, and how lies stand in the way of human connection.