Appearances
Sondra Helene
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Samantha--the fashionable wife of a successful businessman and doting mother of one--struggles to negotiate the spheres of intimacy between her husband and her family of origin. Samantha loves her husband, Richard, and she loves her sister, Elizabeth. But the two of them can barely exist in the same room, which has caused the entire family years of emotional distress. Yet it's not until Samantha's sister is diagnosed at age forty-three with lung cancer that her family and her marriage are tipped into full-blown crisis. A story of love, loss, forgiveness, learning to live with grief, and healing, Appearances will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced tension in their familial relationships--even as it serves as a poignant reminder that no amount of privilege can protect us from family conflicts, marital difficulty, or mortality.
Product Details
Price
$16.95
$15.76
Publisher
She Writes Press
Publish Date
April 09, 2019
Pages
336
Dimensions
5.5 X 8.4 X 0.9 inches | 0.9 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781631524998
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Sondra Helene is a board member and writer at GrubStreet, Boston's center for literary life. Her publications include "Jewish Magic Protected My Sister" in Lilith Magazine, "The Switch" in Voices of Caregiving: Stories of Courage, Comfort and Strength; and "Losing My Sister and the Long Road Back" on better50.com. She has studied fiction and nonfiction at GrubStreet, the Fine Arts Work Center, Gotham Writers Workshop, the Sirenland Writers Conference, and Kripalu. She is a graduate of Ithaca College and Columbia University. A past president of the Friends of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, she has also been involved with fund-raising for the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. Helene is a Life Member of Hadassah, a member of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and a former overseer of the Boston Ballet. She has two grown children and lives outside of Boston with her husband.
Reviews
ATTENTION: The first e-file format OF Appearances had spacing and typo issues due to a conversion error. This has since been corrected. However, if an ebook was purchased prior to Oct. 1, 2019, your purchase might still show these issues. Please email [email protected] directly to replace your Kindle or eBook file, including proof of original purchase. Thank you, and we're sorry for this inconvenience. 2021 Book Excellence Award Winner: Caregiving
2020 Best Book Awards Winner in Fiction: Women's Fiction
2020 Readers' Favorite Book Awards: Bronze Medal in Fiction - Drama
2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in First Novel (70-90k Words) "'Sisters, ' the old Irving Berlin song, winkingly covers primal themes of romance and family; this novel tackles them with detail and realism . . . and makes quietly clear how precious any extra time with a loved one can be. "
--Kirkus Reviews "Appearances gets to the heart of what happens when illness interrupts the good life of a seemingly close family: it strains the bonds of a fraying marriage and tests the love of two impossibly close sisters: one sick, the other trying to prepare for life without her. A tense and moving drama about loss and love and what matters most."
--Laura Zigman, New York Times best-selling author of Animal Husbandry "Sondra Helene captures the fragility of human relationships, in all their forms. How brief we are here, how complicated, and how little time there is to put on pretense."
--Kerry Cohen, author of Lush and Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity "Appearances is a powerful first novel that is for any woman who has struggled with the complicated roles of sister, wife, mother and daughter. Sondra Helene is a writer to watch."
--Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times best-selling author of The Perfect Couple "If you liked Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, read Appearances."
--Beyond the Bookends, "10 New Releases Perfect for Spring Break 2019" "Sondra Helene writes thoughtfully and believably with colorful settings, complicated characters, and an unpredictable plot. Indeed, her theme of appearances symbolizes the scars and secrets the sisters and their husbands mask from public view and one another. There are no villains in this story, only those characters with hidden unresolved pain. In the end, the author offers no easy answers, only hope."
--BookTrib
2020 Best Book Awards Winner in Fiction: Women's Fiction
2020 Readers' Favorite Book Awards: Bronze Medal in Fiction - Drama
2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in First Novel (70-90k Words) "'Sisters, ' the old Irving Berlin song, winkingly covers primal themes of romance and family; this novel tackles them with detail and realism . . . and makes quietly clear how precious any extra time with a loved one can be. "
--Kirkus Reviews "Appearances gets to the heart of what happens when illness interrupts the good life of a seemingly close family: it strains the bonds of a fraying marriage and tests the love of two impossibly close sisters: one sick, the other trying to prepare for life without her. A tense and moving drama about loss and love and what matters most."
--Laura Zigman, New York Times best-selling author of Animal Husbandry "Sondra Helene captures the fragility of human relationships, in all their forms. How brief we are here, how complicated, and how little time there is to put on pretense."
--Kerry Cohen, author of Lush and Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity "Appearances is a powerful first novel that is for any woman who has struggled with the complicated roles of sister, wife, mother and daughter. Sondra Helene is a writer to watch."
--Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times best-selling author of The Perfect Couple "If you liked Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, read Appearances."
--Beyond the Bookends, "10 New Releases Perfect for Spring Break 2019" "Sondra Helene writes thoughtfully and believably with colorful settings, complicated characters, and an unpredictable plot. Indeed, her theme of appearances symbolizes the scars and secrets the sisters and their husbands mask from public view and one another. There are no villains in this story, only those characters with hidden unresolved pain. In the end, the author offers no easy answers, only hope."
--BookTrib
