The Little Women Letters - Hardcover

Donnelly, Gabrielle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1451617186 ISBN 13: 9781451617184

Publisher: Touchstone, 2011

Synopsis

Vibrant, fresh, and intelligent, The Little Women Letters explores the imagined lives of Jo March’s descendants—three sisters who are both thoroughly modern and thoroughly March. As uplifting and essential as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Gabrielle Donnelly’s novel will speak to anyone who’s ever fought with a sister, fallen in love with a fabulous pair of shoes, or wondered what on earth life had in store for her.

With her older sister, Emma, planning a wedding and her younger sister, Sophie, preparing to launch a career on the London stage, Lulu can’t help but feel like the failure of the Atwater family. Lulu loves her sisters dearly and wants nothing but the best for them, but she finds herself stuck in a rut, working dead-end jobs with no romantic prospects in sight. When her mother asks her to find a cache of old family recipes in the attic of her childhood home, Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great-great-grandmother Josephine March. In her letters, Jo writes in detail about every aspect of her life: her older sister, Meg’s, new home and family; her younger sister Amy’s many admirers; Beth’s illness and the family’s shared grief over losing her too soon; and the butterflies she feels when she meets a handsome young German. As Lulu delves deeper into the lives and secrets of the March sisters, she finds solace and guidance, but can the words of her great-great-grandmother help Lulu find a place for herself in a world so different from the one Jo knew?

Some things, of course, remain unchanged: the stories and jokes that form a family’s history, the laughter over tea in the afternoon, the desire to do the right thing in spite of obstacles. And above all, of course, the fierce, undying, and often infuriating bond of sisterhood that links the Atwater women every bit as firmly as it did the March sisters all those years ago. Both a loving tribute to Little Women and a wonderful contemporary family story, The Little Women Letters is a heartwarming, funny, and wise novel for today.

About this title

About the Author:

Gabrielle Donnelly was born and raised in London where she worked as a journalist on women’s magazines before moving to Los Angeles to specialize in show business journalism. She lives in Mar Vista, California, with her husband, Owen Bjornstad. Visit GabrielleDonnellyAuthor.com.

Review:

"Marvelously entertaining, Gabrielle Donnelly's THE LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS evokes the spirit of Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN with warmth and affection. I thoroughly enjoyed every word of this wonderful book." —Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the New York Times bestselling Elm Creek Quilts novels

“Gabrielle Donnelly's THE LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS radiates a rare warmth and charm that had me smiling from beginning to end. The characters absolutely live, and the story is utterly compelling. I quite simply love Donnelly's voice!” ---Santa Montefiore, author of The French Gardener and The Mermaid Garden

“Witty, warm, and bubbling over with voice, The Little Women Letters is a love letter to and from a set of unforgettable heroines. Gabrielle Donnelly's homage is just what a literary tribute should be: full of compassion, heart, and fun.” - - Erin Blakemore, author of The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder

"A sheer delight, full of gentle humor and homespun wisdom." --Katie Fforde, author of Love Letters

"Gabrielle Donnelly's absorbing novel sweeps you across time and generations of family, bound together through love and the strife and joys of daily life. A refreshingly hopeful story that grips you so thoroughly you'll want to lock your door and read, read, read!" --Carol Cassella, author of Healer and Oxygen

"I LOVED this book - it was like a personal treasure trove. The letters sound just exactly as if Jo had written them, and isn't it what we'd always wanted and thought we could never have - more of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy?" --Penny Vincenzi, author of The Best of Times

“[A] light, spirited tale about modern women with old-fashioned values.” --Publishers Weekly

“Donnelly’s The Little Women Letters imagines how modern versions of the March sisters might have lived. . . . Donnelly writes with obvious passion for the classic take and successfully applies a fresh sensibility to the three modern sisters. Nostalgic without being deferential, jocular without being flippant...Beautifully crafted.” --Booklist

“Could be just the perfect pool-side read.” --The Washington Post

“For those who yearn for the verve and wit and chagrin of Alcott, ‘The Little Women Letters’ offers a thoroughly modern . . . twist.” --Seattle Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1451617186
• ISBN 13: 9781451617184
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368