{"product_id":"reunion-a-novel-isbn-9780063346765","title":"Reunion: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Editors' Choice • A \u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Masterful storytelling and memorable characters. . . . Elise Juska's best book yet.”\u003c\/b\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLiz Moore\u003ci\u003e, New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eLong Bright River \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe God of the Woods\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“I loved this story about the importance of long friendships. . . . A perfectly crafted page-turner.”\u003c\/b\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMary Beth Keane, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAsk Again, Yes \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Half Moon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the beloved author of the “uniquely poignant” (\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e) novel \u003ci\u003eThe Blessings\u003c\/i\u003e comes a gripping work of women's fiction about three friends in their forties forced to reckon with their lives during a college reunion in coastal Maine.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt’s June 2021, and three old college friends are heading to New England and the twenty-fifth reunion that was delayed the year before. Hope, a stay-at-home mom, is desperate for a return to her beloved campus, a reprieve from her tense marriage, and the stresses of pandemic parenting. Adam is hesitant to leave his bucolic but secluded life with his wife and their young sons. Single mother Polly hasn’t been back to campus in more than twenty years and has no interest in returning—but changes her mind when her struggling teenage son suggests a road trip.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the reunion isn’t what any of them had envisioned. Hope, always upbeat, is no longer able to downplay the pressures of life at home or the cracks in her longstanding friendships. Adam finds himself energized by the memory of his carefree, reckless younger self—which only reminds him how much has changed since those halcyon days. Polly cannot ignore the ghosts of her college years, including a closely guarded secret. When the weekend takes a startling turn, this found family of friends finds themselves reckoning with the past—and how it will bear on the future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeautifully observed and insightful, \u003ci\u003eReunion\u003c\/i\u003e is a page-turning novel of literary fiction about the highs and lows of friendship from a writer at the height of her powers.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Three former classmates, one 25th college reunion and a lingering pandemic later, Juska’s third novel makes its own contribution—a solid, thoughtful and wryly funny one—to the annals of friendship literature. . . . This nostalgic, realistic novel squarely hits the mark.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times, Editors' Choice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A master of the whip-smart character-driven drama.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A pitch-perfect depiction of New England campus culture, COVID-era child-rearing and how the complexities of adulthood accumulate.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople, \"The Best Books to Read in May\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An engaging story. . . . as cozy as a rainy summer weekend in midcoast Maine. . . . so true to life.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A beautiful excavation of a liminal time period that united the world in collective vulnerability. . . . Juska has a talent for deeply immersive details and rich character development. \u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e pulls the reader in, as if we too were returning to Walthrop and assessing the state of our life.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[Juska] totally captured what it feels like to go to your twenty-fifth. . . . I’m emotional about this book. . . . it got me.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNews Center Maine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Masterful and surprising.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Citizen\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"If a novel is about people approaching fifty, can it still be called a coming-of-age story? After reading Elise Juska’s \u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e, I would argue that it can. I loved this story about the importance of long friendships, especially when life gets difficult in ways we can't imagine when we are young. This is a perfectly crafted page-turner of a novel, full of warmth and wisdom.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In the appealing latest from Juska (after \u003cem\u003eIf We Had Known\u003c\/em\u003e), three friends attend their 25th college reunion in Maine. . . . Hijinks ensue as the Natty Light flows freely, and long-held secrets work their way to the surface. . . . the characters are well drawn, and Juska does an especially good job of portraying how her cast navigates a new normal. It’s a diverting twist on the \u003cem\u003eBig Chill\u003c\/em\u003e.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Poignant and humane, Reunion is a campus novel alive to the ways that personality and privilege intertwine to shape an education and a life. Suspenseful, surprising, and moving all the way through.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCara Blue Adams, author of You Never Get It Back\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e is a masterful portrayal of the experience of being a parent and human being in a world that seems to be tipping toward the end times. Relatable and riveting.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChip Cheek, author of Cape May\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e begins with three deftly drawn protagonists reckoning with the past and present in early midlife, and opens out into an interrogation of the future and what it means to be young now. Juska's masterful ending is as startling as it is moving and true.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKate Christensen, author of Welcome Home, Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Fans of J. Courtney Sullivan’s \u003cem\u003eMaine,\u003c\/em\u003e Hannah McKinnon's \u003cem\u003eThe View From Here, \u003c\/em\u003eand Jonathan Tropper’s \u003cem\u003eThis is Where I Leave You\u003c\/em\u003e will enjoy Juska's blend of introspection and intrigue. Warm and witty, \u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e makes a delightful case for reconnecting with the people who knew you when you barely knew yourself.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A vivid, engrossing read. . . . The idyllic beauty of a Maine college campus is the perfect backdrop for Juska’s characters to reconnect with each other and with who they were in another era, to attempt to distance themselves from the secrets and struggles of the lives they’ve left behind, and to feel both the comfort and the pain of nostalgia.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKatie Runde, author of The Shore\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this elegantly rendered novel about a long-awaited reunion that doesn’t go as planned, Elise Juska deftly and grippingly explores the richness and complexities of longtime friendships, the anxiety of living in a world that feels perpetually on edge, and the possibilities of community and connection that still somehow remain.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLynn Steger Strong, author of Flight and Want\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A deftly written page-turner that kept me up way beyond my bedtime for several days to find out what would happen to Juska's characters. So relatably human and touching, this novel had me riveted until the very last sentence.”  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCaitlin Shetterly, author of Pete and Alice in Maine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e had me hooked from its perfectly tense opening, and kept me enthralled throughout with its masterful storytelling and memorable characters. This is Elise Juska's best book yet.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of God of the Woods\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In Elise Juska’s insightful and elegant new novel, three college friends return to the campus they left decades before and are forced to face the hard truth of how their lives have turned out. A beautifully written and skillfully woven tale of what-ifs and what-might-have-beens–I loved it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Elise Juska’s \u003cem\u003eReunion\u003c\/em\u003e is such a wildly vivid snapshot of midlife that you may feel like you're reading your own diary. How wise and deeply humane and tender is this beautifully written story of three old friends who reconnect at a college reunion on the coast of Maine, how laser sharp the dialogue. The subtle knowingness and crystallized moments of connection and longing between mothers and sons, and husbands and wives, and women friends will stop you in your tracks.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSusan Conley, author of Landslide\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In the tradition of Elizabeth Berg's and Alice McDermott's work, \u003cem\u003eThe Blessings\u003c\/em\u003e is a knowing portrait of a sprawling Irish-American family in Philly across the last thirty years, in all their shared strength and separate weaknesses. Elise Juska is deft and tender, letting us get close to her characters in their most vulnerable moments. The ties that bind are never simple, and often painful, but as one daughter acknowledges, 'these are the hidden intimacies, the private exchanges, on which she builds her life.'\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStewart O'Nan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Elise Juska is so good at describing people, places, and moments that you not only picture them, you \u003cem\u003efeel\u003c\/em\u003e them.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCurtis Sittenfeld\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Several generations of the Blessings, a Philadelphia-based, Irish-American family, come beautifully to life in a deceptively simple tale that examines the foibles, disappointments and passions that tie family members together. . . The author brings a depth of understanding to the human condition. . . . the reader leaves feeling lucky to have spent some time in their presence.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eIf We Had Known: \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\"A tender, whip-smart meditation on the origins and aftermath of tragedy. Here Juska asks us an important and quietly devastating question: In what ways are we responsible to and for each other?\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCarmen Maria Machado, author of the National Book Award Finalist Her Body and Other Parties\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Juska's compelling narrative tackles complex issues about society's judgment of and responsibility for others.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"What a gripping and wise book this is.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRobin Black, author of Life Drawing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eThe Blessings:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \"There's no shortage of novels about the quirks and tragedies of large families, but \u003cem\u003eThe Blessings \u003c\/em\u003eis a uniquely poignant, prismatic look at an Irish-Catholic clan as it rallies after losing one of its own.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A bighearted novel. . . . Juska's moving, multifaceted portrait of the Blessing family gleams like a jewel.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890629898469,"sku":"NP9780063346765","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063346765.jpg?v=1730233723","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/reunion-a-novel-isbn-9780063346765","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}