Wednesday, August 8, 2018

A House Among the Trees


by Julia Glass
Pantheon Books, 2017. 352 pages. General Fiction

Beloved children’s author and illustrator Mort Lear’s sudden accidental death leaves his assistant, Tomisina Daulair, reeling and piecing together many parts of his life. She’s been by his side for the better part of 40 years, and is now left to handle his estate, and legacy, which it seems many want a piece of. There’s an actor who wants to visit Mort’s home to research him for a role in a film, a zealous curator who is working to get on Tomisina’s good side so she’ll donate his works to her museum, and on top of it all, Mort’s will dictates some seemingly odd requests that she’s unsure how to bring about. In the wake of her grief, she is left to figure out what direction her own life can take, now that everything she knew has changed.

This book felt like an old friend from page one. I wanted to check in to see what would happen next with characters I came to feel close to and fond of. Deftly woven, the stories of what brings each of them together, of past and present, all come together to build a world that feels so much like the one we live in, with similar pains and woes, and the same longing and hope for the way that life could have turned out, instead of the way it is. I laughed and cried and loved this book, and would highly recommend it to those looking for a real, human story.

RC

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