Title:- Hello Beautiful
Author:- Ann Napolitano
Date published:- March 14th 2023
No. of pages:- 416 pages
Genre:- Historical Fiction/Literary
Rating:-
Plot:- 4/5
Writing:- 4/5
An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?
Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
This is an emotional, heart wrenching story of family saga–a story between four sisters and a man named William.
William grew up in Boston, but he had a very estranged relationship with his parents, as they were mourning at the loss of William’s sister Caroline. William moves to Chicago for college. There he meets Julia, a vibrant oldest sister of Padavano sisters. William also meets Sylvie, Emmeline and Cecelia, Julia’s sisters. William marries Julia but then an event causes William to suffer from depression and the only person who can help him to get out of depression was Sylvie…
This book was beautifully written and explored the dynamics of family relationship. The story starts in 1978 and throughout the year until up to 2008, the story explores the lives of main characters–William, Julia, Sylvie and later on William and Julia’s daughter Alice. Each character has some sort of a flaw in their character–William being lonely and suffering with depression, Julia wanting to get whatever she wanted in order to succeed. As over the years, each character start growing. I actually liked reading this book. You can also see the close bond between the sisters even though by the middle of the book, the bond between the sisters eventually break. There are some references from Little Women as well and how each of the Little Women characters are compared to Padavano sisters.
The only thing I didn’t like is how William abandoned his own daughter. The book kind of made it look OK but in my opinion, even whatever he was suffering, a father should never abandon his own child.
With that being said, I cannot wait to read more books from this author–worth four stars.
Ann Napolitano’s novel, Hello Beautiful, was published by Dial Press in March 2023 and was an instant New York Times bestseller and the 100th Oprah Book Club pick. The novel was published by Viking Penguin in the United Kingdom in July 2023, and currently has thirty-one international publishers. It was named one of the ten best books of the year by the Chicago Public Library, and one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, Amazon, NPR, The Washington Post, Time, Vogue, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Post and others. Hello Beautiful has also been long-listed for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award.
Dear Edward was published by Dial Press in January 2020 and was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna selection, and was released as an Apple TV+ series starring Connie Britton. The novel currently has twenty-eight international publishers. It was named one of the best books of 2020 by The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Real Simple, Fast Company, Women’s World, Parade, LibraryReads and Amazon.
Her other two novels are A Good Hard Look, and Napolitano’s debut novel, Within Arm’s Reach, which will be re-issued with a new cover in April 2024. She was the Associate Editor of One Story literary magazine from 2014-2020. She received an MFA from New York University; she has taught fiction writing for Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and for Gotham Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.
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