| Psychological |
| Women |
| Suspense |
| Thrillers |
| Fiction |
Summary
Summary
A gripping page-turner for fans of The Woman in the Window and The Perfect Nanny , Michelle Sacks's You Were Made For This provocatively explores the darkest sides of marriage, motherhood, and friendship.
Doting wife, devoted husband, cherished child. Merry, Sam, and Conor are the perfect family in the perfect place. Merry adores the domestic life: baking, gardening, caring for her infant son. Sam, formerly an academic, is pursuing a new career as a filmmaker. Sometimes they can hardly believe how lucky they are. What perfect new lives they've built.
When Merry's childhood friend Frank visits their Swedish paradise, she immediately becomes part of the family. She bonds with Conor. And with Sam. She befriends the neighbors, and even finds herself embracing the domesticity she's always seemed to scorn. All their lives, Frank and Merry have been more like sisters than best friends. And that's why Frank soon sees the things others might miss. Treacherous things, which are almost impossible to believe when looking at this perfect family. But Frank, of all people, knows that the truth is rarely what you want the world to see.
Author Notes
Michelle Sacks is the author of the novel You Were Made for This and the story collection Stone Baby . She was born in South Africa and holds a master's degree in literature and film from the University of Cape Town. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and for two South African PEN Literary Awards.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Sacks's haunting first novel, Columbia University anthropology professor Sam Hurley and his set designer wife, Merry, ditch the comforts of Manhattan for a radically different lifestyle in an isolated cottage he has inherited in Sweden. Although the attractive couple and their baby, Conor, present an idyllic picture, deep-rooted problems threaten their relationship. Sam, who never told his wife that he was fired for inappropriate sexual relationships with students, lies to her daily about his activities. Merry chafes at the happy homemaker role Sam insists she was made for, but soldiers on through endless gardening, baking, canning, and tending an infant for whom she feels nothing. But the family loses its shaky equilibrium with a visit from Merry's glamorous lifelong frenemy, Frank, during which an unthinkable tragedy occurs. Though Sacks (Stone Baby, a story collection) doesn't give readers anyone to root for, her unblinking look at beautiful people with ugly secrets has the voyeuristic fascination of a Bergman film. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Merry and Sam Hurley, with their baby son, Conor, are living the perfect life. They left jobs in New York to move to Sweden, where Sam inherited a house, so Merry gardens and cooks what they grow, baking bread and making Conor's baby food, while Sam tries to start a new career. But there are cracks in this picture: Sam, fired from his assistant professorship at Columbia for an improper relationship with a student, continues his infidelity, while Merry holds secrets about her son and her lack of feelings for him. Then beautiful, single Frank (her nickname for Frances) comes to visit. She and Merry have been as close as sisters since childhood, best friends who bring out the worst in each other. Frank, who's smitten with Conor and flirting with Sam, generally takes over when Merry gets the flu. Tragedy that seemed likely early on now starts to seem inevitable, but its resolution remains a question until the end. An insightful and skillfully constructed novel, with three alternating narrators, this will keep readers rapt to the final page.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2018 Booklist
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Sacks's first novel expertly portrays the dark side of domesticity and motherhood. A young married couple with an adorable baby boy, Merry and Sam are reveling in their new life in the isolated Swedish countryside. Merry is the epitome of familial devotion; Sam is proud of how he's molded her into such a domestic goddess. But he doesn't see the word HELP written by a finger in the dust, or hear the baby's wailing for hours on end. Sam doesn't realize that Merry is an expert at illusion, her interchangeable selves gliding in and out of roles like an actress in a play. But Merry's performance may not be enough when her closest childhood friend Frank comes for an extended visit and reignites the rivalry between them. Frank can see through Merry's façade of domestic happiness; each is a missing piece to the other's puzzle. When tragedy strikes, secrets unravel. Who will survive and who will be sacrificed? VERDICT Fans of dark and twisted psychological thrillers will be swept up in the appearance of domestic bliss and maternal perfection, only to be left off-kilter and breathless with each costume change. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]-K.L. Romo, Duncanville, TX © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.