A Cowardly Woman No More
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Over the course of one fateful day, Trisha Donahue begins to reclaim her courage and discovers secrets in a familiar place. A surprising, quietly dramatic adventure story infused with Ellen Cooney’s warm humor and wisdom.
After years of skilled work and dedication, Trisha Donahue is denied a well-earned promotion by her company’s male executives, who give it instead to an underqualified man. Devastated, forty-four-year-old Trisha begins to reckon with the demands that exhaust her, the injustices that confront her, and the ways she has betrayed herself “just to fit in” with coworkers who resent and belittle her abilities. But at the Rose & Emerald—a unique rural restaurant Trisha has loved since childhood—her company’s annual Banquet Day sets in motion a surprising adventure, revealing unexpected allies, hidden passageways, and an interstellar secret. Encouraged by a vivid cast of characters, from sympathetic coworkers to the mysterious employees of the fabled Rose & Emerald, Trisha makes a decision that will change her professional and personal life forever. From acclaimed author Ellen Cooney, A Cowardly Woman No More is a lively, luminous novel about a wife, mom, and career woman who brings herself first nervously, then more and more bravely, through a monumental transformation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A series of uncanny events befall a woman at her company's annual banquet in Cooney's captivating latest (after One Night Two Souls Went Walking). Trisha Donahue grew up poor, but now, at 44 and married with two kids, she's a successful analyst. On banquet day, though, things start to fall apart. To begin with, the venue, a countryside restaurant that's located near where Trisha grew up, has recently reopened after being allegedly damaged by a comet. And Trisha has just been passed over for a promotion that she and her colleagues had considered a done deal. At the restaurant, she leaves her table during the dinner to wander around the building, and upon walking into an empty room, her inner life fires up ("The deepening hush around me felt like a new friend, just for me"), and things get delightfully weird as the night goes on. A restaurant employee brushes off her questions about the comet and an old boyfriend serves her dinner in an attic, where others visit from her past. Along the way, she reflects on her humble origins and the desperation of her new life. This elegant and off-kilter upending of the office novel sings.
