The Nearness of You
Fiction
Ballantine Books
February 21, 2017
E-book
240
NetGalley
Brilliant heart surgeon Suzette Kendall is stunned when Hyland, her husband of fifteen years, admits his yearning for a child. From the beginning they’d decided that having children was not an option, as Suzette feared passing along the genes that landed her mother in a mental institution. But Hyland proposes a different idea: a baby via surrogate.
Suzette agrees, and what follows is a whirlwind of candidate selections, hospital visits, and Suzette’s doubts over whether she’s made the right decision. A young woman named Dorothy Muscarello is chosen as the one who will help make this family complete. For Dorrie, surrogacy (and the money that comes with it) are her opportunity to leave behind a troubled past and create a future for herself—one full of possibility. But this situation also forces all three of them—Dorrie, Suzette, and Hyland—to face a devastating uncertainty that will reverberate in the years to come.
Beautifully shifting between perspectives, The Nearness of You deftly explores the connections we form, the families we create, and the love we hold most dear.
My review:
A couple of years ago I had the privilege of reading The Same Sky by this author. I was a big fan of that book (see my review here), so was looking forward to another novel by this author. This one is another gem that I highly recommend. Ms. Ward has a way with characters that makes them leap off the page and you feel like you are immersed in their lives. Even though a couple of these characters were not even that likeable to me, the way they were written still had me feeling emotions and relating to their troubles. This book had me hooked following the lives of these characters. Perhaps because I've been involved in the adoption process, although not using a surrogate, I could relate so much to Suzette and her intense need to protect her child, even without that biological bond. There is even an interesting twist at the end that you can kind of see coming if you are paying close attention.
Despite the end being a bit too tidy and quickly wrapped up, this is definitely another winner from Amanda Eyre Ward. You will love these well written characters.
