People Who Knew Me

April 15, 2016

Emily Morris married her college sweetheart, Drew. Like many young couples, they planned to live on love while they both went to graduate school. But life does not always turn out as planned. As they struggle with their professional lives and with Drew's sick mother, their relationship becomes strained. Connie Prynne is a single mother living in California who has just received a devastating diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer. With death as a probable outcome, Connie realizes she needs to stop hiding. For Connie is Emily. A pregnant Emily had planned to leave Drew, but then her lover died in the September 11 attacks. Since Emily worked in the World Trade Center, everyone thought she had died, too, and she lets them believe that lie. VERDICT While Emily's choices may seem selfish to some, the author does a great job of making them believable in this debut. Emily is a flawed, relatable character. The structure of the book--alternating between Emily in the past and Connie in the present--helps readers see how the protagonist has grown. Warmly recommended for women's fiction fans.--Lynnanne Pearson, Skokie P.L., IL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016
Hooper's debut novel poses the evocative question, have you ever thought about what it would be like to start your life over? Emily Morris answers that question in the most extreme way possible. On 9/11, while the U.S. is experiencing its first wave of mass terror as the World Trade Towers collapse, Emily, who would have died if she had gone to work that day, makes the rash decision to let her family assume that she was killed so that she can disappear from her life for good. However, as she learns, such a selfish, desperate act rarely leaves the actor truly free, especially when there is a child involved. Readers will ponder Emily's difficult situation and often disturbing choices as they are glued to this compulsively readable tale. Hooper does not shy away from human nature's less attractive qualities but rather engages with them head on, asking ever more demanding questions: what must one sacrifice in a marriage? What does it take to care for someone who is chronically ill? What does it mean to love yourself?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)