Nothing Forgotten

Starred review from March 15, 2018
Anna Stark leads a fulfilling, if slightly boring, life in San Francisco. Her husband, Michael, has a musician's temperament, and their daughter, Esther, is on the cusp of those difficult teenage years, but their lives are stable. Until Anna receives an email from a long-ago lover, Sergio. Anna traveled abroad when she was younger, spending time with her aunt Doris and teaching English in Rome. Those were wild days, full of expatriates wandering the cobbled streets and more than enough wine. She never expected to hear from Sergio decades later, and she certainly never expected those same wild feelings to resurface. Is comfort a symptom of complacency? Anna wonders: Does she owe it to herself to revisit what she and Sergio had so long ago? Diving deeply into Anna and Sergio's shared history, Levine's second novel focuses on many of the same themes explored in her first, The Geometry of Love (2014). Fans of Emma Straub, Anne Tyler, and Liane Moriarty will adore Levine's treatment of domestic drama and how she brings light to the dusty corners of marriage and motherhood. Immersing the reader in Roman decadence and San Francisco's modernity, Nothing Forgotten is an intricately layered, deeply heartfelt, and bittersweet novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)