The new neighbor
Record details
- ISBN: 1501103520 (softcover)
- ISBN: 9781501103520 (softcover)
- ISBN: 1501103512 (hardcover)
- ISBN: 9781501103513 (hardcover)
-
Physical Description:
288 pages ; 24 cm
print - Edition: First Touchstone edition.
- Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Content descriptions
General Note: | "A Touchstone Book." |
Summary, etc.: | "Ninety-year-old Margaret Riley is content hiding from the world. Stoic and independent, she rarely leaves the Tennessee mountaintop where she lives, finding comfort in the mystery novels that keep her company, that is, until she spots a woman who's moved into the long-empty house across the pond. Jennifer Young is also looking to hide. On the run from her old life, she and her four-year-old son Milo have moved to a quiet town where no one from her past can find her. In Jennifer, Margaret sees both a potential companion in her loneliness and a mystery to be solved. But Jennifer refuses to talk about herself, her son, his missing father, or her past. Frustrated, Margaret crosses more and more boundaries in pursuit of the truth, threatening to unravel the new life Jennifer has so painstakingly created--and reveal some secrets of her own" -- |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | FICTION / Suspense FICTION / Contemporary Women FICTION / Literary Secrecy Fiction Neighbors Fiction Single mothers Fiction Older women Fiction |
Genre: | Suspense fiction. |
Available copies
- 20 of 20 copies available at Bibliomation. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Rowayton Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 20 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rowayton Library | F STE (Text) | 33625130058444 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Publishers Weekly Review
The New Neighbor : A Novel
Publishers Weekly
Stewart (The History of Us) embarks on a promising exploration of the secrets we all carry and our refusal to forgive ourselves. Margaret Riley is an elderly woman who lives on a pond in the Tennessee mountains. She is comfortable with her seclusion and the company of mystery novels. This changes when Jennifer Young moves into the house across the pond from her, with her young son Milo. Margaret can tell right away that Jennifer has a secret, but she can't figure out what it is. Jennifer becomes her masseuse and Margaret starts to let her guard down, hiring Jennifer to write down her story, while Margaret tries to pry out some details of Jennifer's own life. When Jennifer's secrets come out, Margaret makes confessions of her own. Throughout, it is difficult for readers to feel completely situated within this story. It feels like one part character study and internal monologue, and one part suspense, but without a strong sense of dramatic tension. Readers never feel that either woman is in danger from anyone, so they lack a sense of urgency around their stories. While readers might find their struggles of conscience intriguing, the denouement is clumsy and feels rushed. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
The New Neighbor : A Novel
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Living a solitary life in her Tennessee lakeside home with her mystery paperbacks to keep her company, 90-year-old Margaret contrives to meet her new neighbor, Jennifer, a massage therapist with a young son. Jennifer reminds her of an old friend, so Margaret starts sharing stories of her past as a nurse during World War II. Yet Jennifer won't reveal her own secret history-until Margaret's snooping and meddling bring it all crashing down on them. Most of the action in this slow-burning novel happens in the past, revealed in the stream-of-conscious point of view that alternates between these two lonely women, until a third character gets close focus near the end. Sad, closed-off Jennifer (the one you just can't get to know) pales next to Margaret's feistiness, but readers will want to keep going to learn her secret. Verdict Readers who like an unhurried pace, an element of mystery, and plenty of symbolism will be satisfied as Stewart ( The Myth of You and Me) brings her tale to a surprising conclusion that reveals that Margaret holds the biggest secret of all.-Sonia Reppe, Stickney-Forest View P.L., IL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The New Neighbor : A Novel
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Two fugitives, decades apart in age, come to terms with their deepest regrets in Stewart's meditative fifth novel (The History of Us, 2013, etc.). High on a mountain in Sewanee, Tennessee, in what is known as the Domain, two women have moved into small cottages overlooking a pond. Each has come seeking isolation and is at first annoyed to notice she's not the only pondside occupant. Margaret, 90, intends to live out her days with only her World War II scrapbook, her parents' furniture, and her memories as companions. Jennifer, accompanied by her small son, Milo, rents the cabin across the pond from Margaret. Alternating between the first-person narration of Margaret and Jennifer's third-person voice, Stewart establishes that each woman harbors a secret: each feels responsible for the death of her soul mate. In Margaret's case, this is Kay, a fellow nurse with whom she served as Allied forces slogged across Western Europe after D-Day. Jennifer has left her small town and gone into a form of hiding after the death of her husband, Tommy, the love of her life but a hopeless drunk. (The exact nature of Jennifer's guilt about Tommy is withheld until roughly halfway through the book.) Gradually, the grip of the past loosens as each woman reaches out with trepidation toward the world of the present. Though deficient in self-understanding, Jennifer, a massage therapist, is able to instantly diagnose the emotional states locked in the muscles of her clients, including Margaret. Margaret enlists Jennifer to help her record her memories of World War II and of Kay. Jennifer reluctantly enrolls Milo in preschool and is drawn into a small group of parents, including Megan and Sebastian, whose conflicted but functional marriage stands in grim contrast to Jennifer's own. The arrival, late in the novel, of Zoe, Jennifer's estranged teenage daughter, offers the possibility of a neat, sentimental resolution, which Stewart wisely avoids. Stewart's prose is remarkable for its well-shaped sentences and nonshowy but sharp observations. Quietly incisive. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
BookList Review
The New Neighbor : A Novel
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Morally ambiguous is a concept Jennifer Young has taught her son, Milo, to understand. True, he is smart for a four-year-old, but it is also the defining premise of their life on the run. Jennifer married her teenage sweetheart, Tommy, who turned out to be a drunk and a cheat and stole her daughter's heart away from her. When Tommy dies under uncertain circumstances, Jennifer and Milo are forced to flee, relocating in a Tennessee mountain town where their closest neighbor, Margaret, is a 91-year-old with her own hidden past. Inspired by the detective stories that occupy her otherwise empty days, Margaret insinuates herself into Jennifer's routine, hoping to learn Jennifer's secrets, while revealing more of her own than she probably intends. The concepts of responsibility and atonement lie at the heart of Stewart's (The History of Us, 2013) intricately meditative novel, which shows just how deeply a person must dig in order to uncover the truth about one's self and those one loves. Keenly engrossing and multilayered, this mystery and literary-fiction hybrid will elicit rich book-group discussions.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2015 Booklist