Kirby Rose turns 18, hops on a Greyhound bus from St. But Giffin makes the most of the opportunity, and Where We Belong had me riveted.

Graceful and inviting prose, careful plotting and vivid characterizations…The coming together of two people who share a genetic heritage and little else is dramatically and emotionally risky. But most readers will have little time to think of a genre for Emily Giffin’s latest novel as they race through this gripping story about the reunion of a high school senior and the woman who put her up for adoption 18 years earlier. Oo suspenseful to be called chick lit and too relationship-centered to be labeled a thriller. All the characters are on a journey to find ‘where we belong,’ and Giffin knits together their journeys with a masterly hand. Giffin may be working with a premise and plot that is fairly simple, but there’s nothing lightweight about the emotional turbulence she creates.Įmily Giffin’s new novel about the legacy of adoption, Where We Belong, imagines what happens when an 18-year-old girl tracks down her birth mother…the latest in a string of provocative, imaginative novels that began in 2004 with SOMETHING BORROWED. is an emotionally powerful story that will ring true with women who have given a child away and with those who grew up wondering where they came from. It will compel them to muse about things they’d like to do over, to do differently, to do better… gracefully examines themes of identity, family and forgiveness.Įmily Giffin has a wonderful way with words. The book, while thoroughly entertaining, will also prod readers to examine choices they’ve made in their lives. Even Austen would find it hard to put down.Įmily Giffin’s Where We Belong is a literary Rorschach test. Over the course of five best-selling novels, she has traversed the slippery slopes of true love, lost love, marriage, motherhood, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption that have led her to be called ‘a modern-day Jane Austen.’ With Giffin’s use of humor, honesty, originality and, like Austen, a biting social commentary, this modern-day ‘woman’s novel’ sits easily on nightstands and in beach bags. Taking a somewhat more somber tone than she did in her bestselling novels, Giffin’s approach and style mature in this latest effort.Įmily Giffin ranks as a grand master. That’s the challenge faced by the characters in Emily Giffin’s new, briskly paced… Where We Belong. The issue about secrets isn’t about keeping them. is that special type of story that takes priority over getting to bed on time. Luckily, the author executes with a thoughtful finesse that makes this easily her best work yet. Thorny mother-daughter relationships and secrets we keep from loved ones burn up the pages.Īfter five charming relationship-themed hits, Emily Giffin had a lot to live up to with Where We Belong. Book clubs will have a field day with this one.

Where we belong emily giffin summary