The Way We Were
A Novel
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3.6 • 9 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Marcia Willett captured the hearts of Rosamunde Pilcher and Maeve Binchy fans across the nation with her previous heartwarming stories of family devotion and abiding compassion. Now, in her newest novel, The Way We Were, Willett introduces a deeply moving and utterly real tale that is sure to win over a whole new set of readers.
Tiggy arrives at the remote house on Bodmin Moor in the middle of a snowstorm. All alone, having lost
her partner in a tragic accident, Tiggy is welcomed into her best friend Julia's warm and chaotic family. With the Tiggy begins to live again as she eagerly awaits the birth of her son. But nearly thirty years later, when her son is about to become a father himself, the next generation discovers that there are some secrets from the past that still live on…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Willett (Echoes of the Dance) gives us a domestic novel of quiet yearning, haunting memories and onerous guilt, oscillating between the present of 2004 and the late 1970s, when bighearted mom Julia welcomed her pregnant, widowed best friend Tiggy into her home to live. With lush descriptions of pastoral Cornwall as a backdrop, Willett explores the life of naval wives Julia and Julia's Aunt Em, daughter-in-law Caroline and nemesis Angela, each of whom spend much time waiting for her husband to return. Julia and her daughter, Liv, grapple with echoes of their former lives: for Julia, it's the specter of her husband's infidelity, in the form of Angela; for Liv, it's the one that got away, in the form of unhappily but intractably married co-worker Chris. And that's hardly all; Willett piles on the conflicts and tragedies, overloading her suffering characters. The women are largely faultless and sweet particularly the insouciant, lovely Liv which undermines their well-earned gravitas. Still, Angela makes a delicious antagonist, and the friendships at the novel's heart especially the tender relationship between Julia and Tiggy are believable and warming.
