The Widower's Tale

Description

Seventy-year-old Percy Darling is settling happily into retirement: reading novels, watching old movies, and swimming naked in his pond. But his routines are disrupted when he is persuaded to let a locally beloved preschool take over his barn. As Percy sees his rural refuge overrun by children, parents, and teachers, he must reexamine the solitary life he has made in the three decades since the sudden death of his wife. With equal parts affection and humor, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale about a man who can no longer remain aloof from his community, his two grown daughters, or - to his great shock - the precarious joy of falling in love.

Reviews

"Marvelous. . . . A delicate, nuanced, socially conscious story of one family's near-destruction, and how a slew of seemingly bad moves reconnects it." - "USA Today " "An enchanting story of familial bonds and late-life romance. Expect to be infatuated with Glass's protagonist ... he of generous soul, dry wit, and courtly manners." - "O, The Oprah Magazine " "Fans of "Three Junes "will find this fourth novel just as absorbing. It's like reading an involving letter from a long-lost friend." - "People " "This energized, good-humored novel . . . approaches the ties of kinship with the same joyfully disruptive spirit that animated [Glass's] previous books. . . . Satisfyingly cleareyed and compassionate." - "The New York Times Book Review"

Author description

Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes, winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction; The Whole World Over; and I See You Everywhere, winner of the 2009 Binghamton University John Gardner Book Award. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her short fiction has won several prizes, and her personal essays have been widely anthologized. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.