From bestselling author Ann Hood comes a sophisticated and suspenseful novel about the poignant lives of two women living in different eras.
On the day John F. Kennedy is inaugurated, Claire, a young wife and mother obsessed with the glamour of Jackie, struggles over the decision of whether to stay in a loveless but secure marriage or to follow the man she loves and whose baby she may be carrying. Decades earlier in 1919, Vivien Lowe, an obituary writer, is searching for her lover who disappeared in the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. By telling the stories of the dead, Vivien not only helps others cope with their grief but also begins to understand the devastation of her own terrible loss. The surprising connection between these two women will change Claire's life in unexpected and extraordinary ways.
Part literary mystery and part love story, The Obituary Writer examines expectations of marriage and love, the roles of wives and mothers, and the emotions of grief, regret, and hope.
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“In this poignant and incisive novel, Ann Hood brings history back to
life in the most intimate way, chronicling the love affairs and
heartbreaks of two very different women in two very different times.
Moving gracefully and persuasively between post-earthquake San Francisco
and the early 1960s, The Obituary Writer makes unexpected
connections between these two bygone eras, and in the process, manages
to illuminate the present as well as the past.”
—
Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author