In this captivating and page-turning literary novel, Zelda Blair is a young mother trapped in an abusive marriage, navigating a life in which appearances are everything. Zelda resides with her husband and four young children in San Francisco's tony Pacific Heights neighborhood. The daughter of a literature professor and a Manhattan police officer, Zelda is known among friends and acquaintances for her intelligence and genial nature. However, she hides a simmering resentment: She believes that her investment banker husband, Nick, is having an affair with her close friend, Brooke, an outspoken Bay area socialite. Zelda decides to shelter herself and her four daughters at her parents' home, but she never admits to her feelings of shame, confusion, and intimidation, and she struggles with the emotional contradiction of loving a husband who attacks her physically with increasing hostility. She eventually returns home to find Nick in one of his better moods. But her self-deception soon crumbles, and she finally tells her friends about his physical violence. Later on, things get messy and the lines between lovers and enemies become blurred. The story fairly brims with amiable and charming characters, but it also effectively gets across Zelda's dark history, eliciting empathy and compassion. Foster's prose style is cleareyed and relentless throughout, right up to a rousing conclusion that will shock and satisfy readers. An intense, emotional story of domestic abuse.
Foster, Jane: - Jane Foster was born below sea level in New Orleans. She grew up there with a taste for delicious food and friendly people, and then life took her to New York for thirty-three years. There she studied English literature and art history at Finch College, and after graduating with honors, she worked at Sotheby's as assistant to Chairman John Marion. Later she worked with the famed jeweler, Fred Leighton, and then opened her own jewelry design business. She is a passionate horticulturist, and two of her gardens are included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens. After moving to Florida, Jane served on the board of the Hanley Center, an alcoholism and substance abuse treatment center for nearly two decades. In 2018, she won the Jessica Cosgrave Award for lifetime achievement from Finch College. Jane has three children, and currently enjoys the best of all worlds, dividing her time between Florida and France. Jane has written four other novels. Her first novel, Below Sea Level, published in 2013, won an Illumination Book Award. Her second novel, Sliding, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her third novel, Boulevard Beauséjour, written with Anne Yelland, was nominated for the Book Excellence Award. Her last novel, Careless, published in 2019, also won the Book Excellence Award.
