I enjoyed meeting this friend. I had a hunch that Jack caused the crash and was leading a double life but never would have guess the IRA. Ironically, I finished this book on a flight back from Salt Lake City, Utah! ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Remember it well; pilot has two wives, one on each side of the Atlantic. Consider it average, and so why do I remember it so vividly??? P.S. Two copies in the Adams office as of this writing." ( )

The first half of this book had promise but the second half was a glorified Mills and Boone. I was very disappointed. ( )

This is my first Anita Shreve book, and it is her best-selling book because Oprah picked it. I cannot see why. The story starts when Kathryn receives the news that her husband's transatlantic flight has exploded off the coast of Ireland, but this news is only the beginning of discovery for her about who her husband really was. There is the exploration of grief, family relationships, parenting and how Kathryn deals with this unraveling of life as she knows it.

At the end of course things resolve and wounds start to heal, but there is a small matter of the helping hand that Kathryn receives. The author conjures up for her out of this total disaster a miracle man, someone too good to be true. He plays the piano (like she loves to do), cooks her lobsters and is beside her as she faces the cruelest of her husband's betrayals. Robert is an ex husband himself and a recovering alcoholic, but it is obvious that he cares very much for her. There is little hint at romance in the story but I can very well imagine her falling for him, I would too.
( )

This book was gorgeously written, emotionally gripping, and overall a hauntingly beautiful novel on loss and love and rediscovering people we think we once knew. I don't know what the hell everyone else read because this novel was wonderful and the twists about the pilot's life did not seem contrived at all. Oh well. Still loved it. ( )