Tumbledown Manor

April 15, 2016
Lisa Trumperton leads a contented life in Manhattan as an empty-nester and successful romance novelist. Then she finds out that her husband is leaving her for his buxom, young coworker. She decides to return to her native Australia to finish her latest manuscript and nurse her broken heart. She purchases a dilapidated country manor that once belonged to her great-grandfather and fixes it up with the help of a motley crew of retired townspeople and a charismatic landscaper, Scott. Her relationship with her son blossoms as he helps her restore their family home, and she begins to make inroads with her distant daughter. When her ex tries to win her back, she must choose between her cozy former life and the more challenging but invigorating new one. Brown, author of best-selling memoirs Cleo (2010) and Cats and Daughters (2013), writes with empathy and humor in her first novel, about finding new love and purpose in middle age.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)