Fic­tion

The Awk­ward Age

  • From the Publisher
April 26, 2017
Julia Alden has fall­en deeply, unex­pect­ed­ly in love. Amer­i­can obste­tri­cian James is every­thing she did­n’t know she want­ed – if only her teenage daugh­ter, Gwen, did­n’t hate him so much. Unit­ing two house­holds is nev­er easy, but when Gwen turns for com­fort to James’s sev­en­teen-year-old son, Nathan, the con­se­quences will test her moth­er’s loy­al­ty and threat­en all their frag­ile new hap­pi­ness. 

This is a mov­ing and pow­er­ful nov­el about the mod­ern fam­i­ly: about start­ing over; about love, guilt, and gen­eros­i­ty; about build­ing some­thing beau­ti­ful amid the mess and com­plex­i­ty of what came before. It is a sto­ry about stand­ing by the ones we love, even while they make mis­takes. We would give any­thing to make our chil­dren hap­py. But how much should they ask?

Discussion Questions