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Hello From the Gillespies
624 pages; NAL Trade

Because laughter smooths out the bumps on any trip.


Travel and family often provoke enough anxiety, each on their own; combined, they can drive you over the edge. Monica McInerney's laugh-inducing—and refreshingly honest—novel is the perfect antidote to both. For 33 years, Angela Gillespie has sent a holiday newsletter extolling her family's virtues and the charmed lives they're all leading. Until this year, when she decides to tell everyone the truth: It's been a terrible year for the Gillespies. Her husband is having a hard time with retirement, the grown twins' careers are in freefall, her daughter is badly in debt and her 10-year-old son retreats into his imagination to an unhealthy degree. Luckily—and unluckily—Angela has an accident and loses her memory, and the rest of the Gillespies have to work together to address their problems with each other and with themselves. Midway through, you may feel the urge to call up your parents and siblings and tell them how wonderful they are in comparison. Whatever else she may have done in the past, your mother probably hasn't told everyone she knows that you're having an affair with your boss, has she?
— Stephanie Klose