Pictures of You

August 23, 2010
Leavitt's ninth book (after Girls in Trouble), a touching story of loss and discovery, centers on photographer Isabelle Stein, whose stifled Cape Cod life and marriage crumbles when she discovers her husband has gotten his mistress pregnant. She packs up her cameras and takes off, but has a horrific car accident in Hartford, Conn., that kills the woman in the other car. As it turns out, the dead woman is April Nash, who lived a few blocks away from Isabelle's home on the Cape, and April's son, Sam, now believes Isabelle is an angel who can help him communicate with his mother. Once Isabelle ends up back on the Cape, she, Sam, and April's widower, Charlie, develop a strong but strange bond as they all try to sort out what comes next. Leavitt explores the depths of grief and the sticky spots sorrow pushes people into, and though the story stumbles sometimes into too saccharine moments, Leavitt's near bottomless reserve of compassion for her imperfect characters will endear them to readers.

November 1, 2010

Tragedy leads to complicated love as a widower and the woman who accidentally killed his wife are united by a grieving child looking for an angel.        

Compassion and a delicate narrative voice lift Leavitt (Girls in Trouble, 2003, etc.) over many if not all the hurdles of sentimentality in this heartstring-tugger, set in Cape Cod, that's shaped by loss and yearning. Photographer Isabelle Stein, fleeing from her unfaithful husband in foggy weather, suddenly encounters a car containing a woman and a child, the car facing the wrong way in the middle of the road. The unavoidable collision leaves April Nash dead; her nine-year-old asthmatic son Sam only slightly hurt but silent on what he witnessed; and Sam's father Charlie heartbroken and bewildered. Why was April three hours away from home and traveling with a suitcase? The aftermath of the crash is a struggle for all parties, especially Sam, who sees Isabelle as an angel connected to his mother. The two become friends through photography, and Charlie's initial anger subsides as he acknowledges childless Isabelle's genuine affection for the boy. But when Sam learns that the adults have become lovers, the emotional impact makes him ill. Separation follows, then an explanation which liberates Charlie to go after Isabelle. Crossed wires are eventually straightened out, but not predictably.

Heartfelt (everyone cries), deft and highly readable fiction.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2010

Leavitt's ninth novel (after Girls in Trouble) opens with a tragic and eerie car accident. Two women from the same small Cape Cod town collide on a foggy road one morning. Both were leaving their husbands, but only one, Isabelle, survives. Another survivor is the other's severely asthmatic nine-year-old son, also in the accident. He witnesses what he believes to be an angel at the crash--Isabelle. Leavitt tells a compelling story of how the two survivors' lives entwine, partly because of the boy's desire to talk with Isabelle about his mother. Leavitt's characters and their problems feel very real, and readers will want to know more about them. Despite all this, the angel trope peppered throughout feels forced and unnecessary, and the plot becomes somewhat predictable; the second half of the book is also significantly weaker than the first. VERDICT This is an entertaining read and a wonderful story, but it doesn't cover any new literary ground. Recommended for fans of women's fiction.--Shalini Miskelly, Seattle

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2010
In Leavitts (Girls in Trouble, 2005) compelling new novel, a car crash provides the catalyst for an examination of how well we know the people we love. April and Isabelle, both fleeing their marriages, collide on a foggy, deserted stretch of road. Only Isabelle survives, and though blameless, she is haunted by guilt. In search of healing, she finds herself drawn to Charlie and Sam, Aprils grief-stricken husband and son. Complicated relationships develop, and Leavitt thoughtfully handles friendship and romance in scenes of emotional resonance. She understands the ache of loss, the elusiveness of forgiveness, and the triteness of words like closure. An expert storyteller, Leavitt alternates perspective among her three leading characters, providing insight into the thoughts, secrets, and dreams that they withhold from each other. Whether these individuals will arrive at happiness separately or together is the question that drives the narrative, and the reader, forward as Leavitt teases suspense out of the greatest mystery of allthe workings of the human heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)