cover image Love All

Love All

Callie Wright. Holt, $25 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8050-9697-2

Three generations of a family in transition are at the center of Wright’s touching character-driven tale. Octogenarian grandfather Bob Cole is grieving the death of his wife when his take-charge daughter Anne Obermeyer brings him to live with her family in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the mid ’90s. But the Obermeyers have their own problems. Anne’s husband, Hugh, the principal of a local preschool, is sleeping with one of his students’ mothers. Popular and athletic son Teddy, a high school senior, is terrified of the life looming beyond the safety of his hometown, and 15-year-old daughter Julia is caught in a painful love triangle. And The Sex Cure, a novel that was published in the 1960s—a thinly veiled exposé of the town’s scandalous inhabitants—resurfaces, painfully connecting the generations. Wright’s greatest asset, her ability to switch voices as family members narrate in turn, is also the novel’s greatest weakness, skimming each story without gaining emotional resonance or tying together themes. But the prose is effortless, and the characters are accessible and genuine, making this a promising debut. Agent: Amy Williams, McCormick & Williams. (June)