Cobble Hill

May 1, 2020

Four fraught couples in Brooklyn's charmed Cobble Hill. There's Mandie, uninterested in her kids, and once-upon-a-time boyband hubby Stuart, uninterested in Mandie; school nurse Peaches and earphone-wearing husband Greg; British novelist Roy and energized wife Wendy; and shy industrial designer Tupper, still courting out-of-reach wife Elizabeth. From celebrated Gossip Girl von Ziegesar; with a 60,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
Gossip Girl (2002) author von Ziegesar takes on the complicated lives of quirky Brooklyn married couples. In Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, four seemingly happy couples are each dealing with secret dissatisfactions. There's Roy, a British novelist who's struggling to write his next novel, and his wife, Wendy, a big-shot magazine editor who's hiding her recent demotion. There's former punk rocker Stuart Little and his wife, Mandy, who's lying about the real reason she stays in bed all day. There's the school nurse, Peaches, whom every man seems to have a crush on, and her pretty much ignored husband, Greg. And then there's the strangest couple of all, a designer/inventor named Tupper and his mysterious artist wife, Elizabeth. Unlike von Ziegesar's previous work for teens, this isn't full of drama, sex, and scandal--instead, readers are treated to a surprisingly tender, detailed, and quiet study of eccentric characters who are thoroughly interesting even when making bad decisions. There are so many characters, and the point of view shifts so rapidly, that following along can sometimes be confusing. Also, every character displays an obnoxious obsession with Mandy's weight (have none of them ever met an overweight person before?). But von Ziegesar's writing style is breezy, witty, and compulsively fun to read, making this an entertaining distraction full of laughable moments and realistically awkward dialogue. A pleasantly diverting escape that will make readers long for the human connection of a tight-knit neighborhood.

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August 10, 2020
This amusing romp from von Ziegesar (the Gossip Girl series) centers on an ensemble cast of self-aware, alienated couples in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill. Roy Clarke, famed British novelist of the cult hit Rainbow series, functions as the book’s center, arriving in Cobble Hill at the insistence of his critical wife, Wendy, who had hoped moving from London to New York City to take the features editor job at a fashion magazine would give her life a new direction. Roy, along with Wendy and their awkward adolescent daughter, Shy, hoped to “slip into Brooklyn and discover it quietly, be discovered by it quietly,” and in Roy’s efforts to overcome his six-year writing drought, he finds inspiration in his new neighborhood’s oddball residents: lonely Tupper Paulsen, a commercially successful but superficial artist; Tupper’s eccentric, seldom-seen performance artist wife, Elizabeth; sexy, dimpled Peaches, an English-major dropout and public school nurse with unrealized drummer dreams; Peaches’s awkward teenage son, Liam, who is self-diagnosed with Asperger’s and in love with Shy; and Stuart Little, a former rock star determined to be a good dad and a good husband to his wife, Mandy. The roiling tensions within and between families break into the open during the Bonfire Night party Roy throws for the neighborhood. Von Ziegesar’s quirky novel of lovable misfits will appeal to fans of Tom Perrotta.

October 1, 2020
Von Ziegesar's adult debut gently satirizes the excesses of Brooklyn's self-consciously privileged characters. Aging rock star Stuart Little is worried that fatherhood has turned him uncool, his wife Mandy has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and their son might be a pyromaniac. Peaches Park's work as a school nurse doesn't excite her?but flirting with the singer from her favorite band does, in a way that her husband Greg doesn't. London transplant Wendy Clarke's highbrow fashion magazine job isn't what she expected, her daughter Shy has an inappropriate crush on her Latin teacher, and her author husband Roy has writer's block. Through a series of vignettes that take place during an eventful autumn, secrets are revealed, relationships are tested, and adults and young people behave equally badly. Cobble Hill is thoughtfully observed and frequently funny, and von Ziegesar expertly shifts perspectives to give readers insight into each character's unique point of view. Readers of ensemble fiction by Emma Straub and Amy Poeppel?as well as grown-up fans of Gossip Girl?will enjoy this inside look at the lifestyles of the creative class.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)