"There\'s not a false note in this powerful, beautifully crafted exploration of the trade-offs in women\'s lives." --People From National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Year We Left Home comes a moving family saga about three generations of women who struggle to find freedom and happiness in their small Midwestern college town.
Tethered to their small Midwestern town--by choice or chance--Jean Thompson seamlessly weaves together the stories of the Wise women with humanity and elegance, through their heartbreaks, setbacks, triumphs, and tragedies..
One of the burning questions she asks is: by serving her family, is a woman destined to repeat the mistakes of previous generations, or can she transcend the expectations of a place, and a time? Can she truly be free? Evelyn, Laura, and Grace are the glue that binds their family together.
Spanning from World War II to the present, Thompson reveals a matrilineal love story that is so perfectly grounded in our time--a story of three women regressing, stalling, and yes, evolving, over decades.
In A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl we see these women and their trials, small and large: social slights and heartbreaks; marital disappointments and infidelities; familial dysfunction; mortality.
Grace has moved out from Laura and Gabe\'s house, but can\'t seem to live up to her potential--whatever that might be.
Her daughter Laura felt this acutely and wants desperately to marry, but she soon discovers her husband Gabe to be a man who expects too much of everyone in his life, especially his musician son.
Evelyn set aside her career to marry late, and motherhood never became her.
A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl is a poignant novel about three generations of the Wise family--Evelyn, Laura, and Grace--as they hunt for contentment amid chaos of their own making. "There\'s not a false note in this powerful, beautifully crafted exploration of the trade-offs in women\'s lives." --People From National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Year We Left Home comes a moving family saga about three generations of women who struggle to find freedom and happiness in their small Midwestern college town
