Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

A richly imagined, powerful new novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious.

On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.

Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son's secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson's housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone's. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl's identity can be known.

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.

480 pages (December 2018)

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Title Read-alikes: Sin Eater by Megan Campisi; The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern; The Storyteller of Marrakesh by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya; A Tall History of Sugar Curdella Forbes; Orkney by Amy Sackville; The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton; The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman; The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian; and Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor.

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

From bestselling author Meg Wolitzer a dazzling, panoramic novel about what becomes of early talent, and the roles that art, money, and even envy can play in close friendships.

The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.

The kind of creativity that is rewarded at age fifteen is not always enough to propel someone through life at age thirty; not everyone can sustain, in adulthood, what seemed so special in adolescence. Jules Jacobson, an aspiring comic actress, eventually resigns herself to a more practical occupation and lifestyle. Her friend Jonah, a gifted musician, stops playing the guitar and becomes an engineer. But Ethan and Ash, Jules’s now-married best friends, become shockingly successful—true to their initial artistic dreams, with the wealth and access that allow those dreams to keep expanding. The friendships endure and even prosper, but also underscore the differences in their fates, in what their talents have become and the shapes their lives have taken.

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and apart in a changing New York City, The Interestings explores the meaning of talent; the nature of envy; the roles of class, art, money, and power; and how all of it can shift and tilt precipitously over the course of a friendship and a life.

468 pages (April 2013)

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Book Page at BookBrowse.

Lit Guide from LitLovers.

Reading Guide from BookMovement.

Reading Guide from ReadingGroupChoices.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Interestings at goodreads

 

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Author Webpage

Meg Wolitzer in Conversation with Delia Ephron (New York Society Library):

 

Meg Wolitzer reads from The Interestings at Eat, Drink & Be Literary (BAMorg):

 

Meg Wolitzer at The Moth: First Love, Long Island 1975:

This title is available for download as an eBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Ensemble by Aja Gabel; Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam; Two Across by Jeffrey Bartsch; Expectation by Anna Hope; Close to Hugh by Marina Endicott; Freedom by Jonathan Franzen; Trust Exercise by Susan Choi; Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante; Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple; The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt; and Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.