Still Life with Bread Crumbs: A Novel Author: Anna Quindlen | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EBRUAYE | Format: PDF
Still Life with Bread Crumbs: A Novel Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A superb love story from Anna Quindlen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rise and Shine, Blessings, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.
Brilliantly written, powerfully observed,
Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.
Praise for Still Life with Bread Crumbs“There comes a moment in every novelist’s career when she . . . ventures into new territory, breaking free into a marriage of tone and style, of plot and characterization, that’s utterly her own. Anna Quindlen’s marvelous romantic comedy of manners is just such a book. . . . Taken as a whole, Quindlen’s writings represent a generous and moving interrogation of women’s experience across the lines of class and race. . . . [
Still Life with Bread Crumbs] proves all the more moving because of its light, sophisticated humor. Quindlen’s least overtly political novel, it packs perhaps the most serious punch. . . . Quindlen has delivered a novel that will have a staying power all its own.”
—The New York Times Book Review “Charming . . . a hot cup of tea of a story, smooth and comforting about the vulnerabilities of growing older . . . a pleasure.”
—USA Today “[The protagonist’s] photographs are celebrated for turning the ‘minutiae of women’s lives into unforgettable images,’ and Quindlen does the same here with her enveloping, sure-handed storytelling.”
—People“Quindlen has made a home at the top of the bestsellers lists with novels that capture the grace and frailty of everyday life, and her latest work is sure to take her there again. With spare, elegant prose, she crafts a poignant glimpse into the inner life of an aging woman who discovers that reality contains much more color than her own celebrated black-and-white images.”
—Library Journal “Quindlen has always excelled at capturing telling details in a story, and she does so again in this quiet, powerful novel, showing the charged emotions that teem beneath the surface of daily life.”
—Publishers Weekly “A Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and star in the pantheon of domestic fiction (
Every Last One, 2010), Quindlen presents instantly recognizable characters who may be appealingly warm and nonthreatening, but that only serves to drive home her potent message that it’s never too late to embrace life’s second chances.”
—Booklist “Profound . . . engaging.”
—Kirkus ReviewsFrom the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 1451 KB
- Print Length: 272 pages
- Publisher: Random House (January 28, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EBRUAYE
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Romance - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Women's Fiction - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Sagas
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Romance - #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Women's Fiction - #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Sagas
At 60 and divorced, Rebecca Winter, the well known photographer and lifelong New Yorker, is still a famous name, but her works are no longer bringing in the money they once did. Money she needs now to provide elder care for her parents. So she sublet her New York apartment and has just moved into a "fully furnished" cottage that's turned out to be nowhere near the gem its ad had alleged it to be. What's more, it's on a street that has no name, it's got a raccoon in its attic, only four forks in its silverware drawer and nary a single electric outlet in its bedroom. Not so hot a spot for starting over, it would seem. But fate seems to have other ideas.
As a reader with a table-high stack of books waiting to be read, I can't believe that what I did after getting to the end of this book, was to go straight back to the beginning and start over. I don't think I've ever done that with a book before. Sure, I re-visit my Jane Austens from time to time, but I've never before liked a book so much and gotten so involved with its characters that I went straight from the end right back to the beginning. Bravo and thank you, Anna Quindlen.
By the way, "Still Life With Bread Crumbs" is the title of Rebecca's most famous and best-selling photo.
Addenda 1/29/14: I've just read a really interesting interview with the author in today's Washington Post and am posting a link in the comment below.
By Sharon Isch
TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE
Anna Quindlen is an outstanding author and when I saw she had written something new, I knew I had to read it. I am so glad I did, it did not disappoint. I found myself wanting more but satisfied with what I got.
To begin with, Rebecca Winter, the person this whole story is about, is 60 years old. I mean a bright, youthful, intelligent and healthy 60 years old. That to me is such a refreshing change, rather than a grandmotherly, aging, overweight and sickly 60 years old. So I was wonderfully pleased with that immediately. Beyond the fact of age, Rebecca is a very engaging woman, a rather famous photographer who has been successful in her life. Yet, she has come to a crossroads, where the money isn't flowing in any more and she looks for a change.
Rebecca rents a cabin in the woods that she found on the internet. So site unseen she moves in to this cabin and begins on a new and very different way of living than she has ever experienced. Many people become part of her life. One young roofer in particular, Jim Bates. Thus begins a very touching and realistic love story.
This is not only a love story though. It is about a woman re-inventing herself and finding peace with her aging parents, son and most of all herself.
By Jeanne Anderson
VINE VOICE
Still Life with Bread Crumbs: A Novel Preview
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