Lifelines / Heidi Diehl.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diehl, Heidi, author.

Contributor:

Class of 1932 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law.

Germany--Fiction.

Germany.

Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law--Fiction.

Family secrets--Fiction.

Family secrets.

Americans--Germany--Fiction.

Americans.

Funeral rites and ceremonies--Fiction.

Funeral rites and ceremonies.

Genre:

Fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Physical Description:

320 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Life lines

Place of Publication:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.

Summary:

"For fans of Meg Wolitzer and Maggie Shipstead: a sweeping debut novel following an American artist who returns to Germany--where she fell in love and had a child decades earlier--to confront her past at her former mother-in-law's funeral. It's 1971 when Louise leaves Oregon for Düsseldorf, a city grappling with its nation's horrific recent history, to study art. Soon she's embroiled in a scene dramatically different from the one at home, thanks in large part to Dieter, a mercurial musician. Their romance ignites quickly, but life gets in the way: an unplanned pregnancy, hasty marriage, the tense balance of their creative ambitions, and--finally, fatally--a family secret that shatters Dieter, and drives Louise home. But in 2008 she's headed to Dieter's mother's funeral. She never returned to Germany, and has since remarried, had another daughter, and built a life in Oregon. As she flies into the heart of her past, she reckons with the choices she made, and the ones she didn't, just as her family--current and former--must consider how Louise's life has shaped their own, for better and for worse. Exquisitely balanced, expansive yet wonderfully intimate, Lifelines explores the indelible ties of family; the shape art, history, and nationality give to our lives; and the ways in which we are forever evolving, with each step we take, with each turn of the Earth"-- Book jacket.

"For fans of Meg Wolitzer and Maggie Shipstead: a sweeping debut novel following an American artist who returns to Germany--where she fell in love and had a child decades earlier--to confront her past at her former mother-in-law's funeral. It's 1971 when Louise leaves Oregon for Düsseldorf, a city grappling with its nation's horrific recent history, to study art. Soon she's embroiled in a scene dramatically different from the one at home, thanks in large part to Dieter, a mercurial musician. Their romance ignites quickly, but life gets in the way: an unplanned pregnancy, hasty marriage, the tense balance of their creative ambitions, and--finally, fatally--a family secret that shatters Dieter, and drives Louise home. But in 2008 she's headed to Dieter's mother's funeral. She never returned to Germany, and has since remarried, had another daughter, and built a life in Oregon. As she flies into the heart of her past, she reckons with the choices she made, and the ones she didn't, just as her family--current and former--must consider how Louise's life has shaped their own, for better and for worse. Exquisitely balanced, expansive yet wonderfully intimate, Lifelines explores the indelible ties of family; the shape art, history, and nationality give to our lives; and the ways in which we are forever evolving, with each step we take, with each turn of the Earth"-- Book jacket.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1932 Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Diehl, Heidi. Lifelines.

ISBN:

9781328483720

132848372X

OCLC:

1045461714