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4+ Stars

This is a story of, and about, family. A family whose lives are shared on the same date, April 5th, over several years: 2019, 2020, and 2021. The years of the pandemic, although this isn’t really a story about the pandemic, itself, but a story of the way the pandemic affects this family, each one is affected in their own way, it casts a shadow on all of their lives, and they begin to view each other, and what they want for their futures, in a different light.

This isn’t your average family, it’s a mish-mash, communal kind of family. Isabel, a wife, mother with two kids, who works as a photo editor. Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie, who lives in her attic. Dan, who is married to Isabel, although their relationship slowly dissolves as time passes. The two children, Violet, who was in elementary school until the pandemic hits, and Nathan, a preteen, who is your fairly typical boy going through the years of ‘becoming,� a typical age for moody behavior. There are also Dan’s brother, Garth, his child, Odin, and Garth’s friend Chess.

And then there is Robbie, who seems to be the one person who adds a sense of balance, the one who seems to know the right things to say to defuse frustration. He is the one who everyone turns to when they need a listening ear. But Robbie dreams of another kind of life, a life of travel to places he’s only dreamed of, and after that, perhaps, medical school. He won’t be lonely in foreign places since his Instagram followers will be keeping him company, and providing connections.

Overall, this is a quiet story of the days, months, years when life changed for virtually everyone on the planet, and the days when the news was filled with the numbers of lives that were lost, and the solemn sound of the ringing of the bells.

Pub Date: 14 Nov 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Random House