Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

Title: Red Hook Road
Author: Ayelet Waldman
Publisher: Doubleday
Source: My personal copy

Isn’t this a great cover?  It’s a familiar scene of a summer wedding reception but without the people.  It’s a nice subtle foreshadowing of the contents.

This novel is a study of grief and how two people who seem so unlike each other can set aside differences when it comes to the well-being of their children.

I follow Ayelet on Twitter where she’s very much herself – a mom, a writer, a funny woman, Jewish, a wife in love with her husband, and opinionated – these are only a few of the adjectives I’d use to describe her.  These little pieces of herself were put into these characters.  The ways in which they cope with their grief are as individual as the characters.

I find it difficult to write about Red Hook Road without giving anything away.  All I can say is the coda at the end is hauntingly beautiful.  It is perfectly placed and it’s well worth the reader’s time to get through four summers in Red Hook, Maine to get there.