Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Maria Semple. Little, Brown, $25.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-316-20427-9
In her second novel (after This One Is Mine), Semple pieces together a modern-day comic caper full of heart and ingenuity. Eighth-grader Bee is the daughter of Microsoft genius Elgin Branch and Bernadette Fox, a once-famous architect who has become a recluse in her Seattle home. Bee has a simple request: a family cruise to Antarctica as a reward for her good grades. Her parents acquiesce, but not without trepidation. Bernadette’s social anxiety has become so overwhelming that she’s employed a personal assistant from Delhi Virtual Assistants Intl. (who makes “$0.75 USD/hr.”) for tasks as simple as making dinner reservations. How will she survive three weeks on a boat with other live human beings? Maybe she won’t; a day before the trip, Bernadette disappears, and Bee gathers her mother’s invoices, e-mail correspondence, and emergency room bills in the hopes of finding clues as to where she went.The result is a compelling composite of a woman’s life—and the way she’s viewed by the many people who share it. As expected from a writer who has written episodes of Arrested Development, the nuances of mundane interactions are brilliantly captured, and the overarching mystery deepens with each page, until the thoroughly satisfying dénouement. Agent: Anna Stein, Aitken Alexander. (Aug.)
Details
Reviewed on: 05/14/2012
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 978-1-4789-7735-3
Compact Disc - 9 pages - 978-1-4789-7894-7
Hardcover - 479 pages - 978-1-4104-5306-8
Mass Market Paperbound - 384 pages - 978-0-316-41585-9
Open Ebook - 336 pages - 978-0-316-20428-6
Open Ebook - 1 pages - 978-1-61969-111-7
Open Ebook - 196 pages - 978-0-316-40159-3
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Paperback - 478 pages - 978-1-59413-631-3
Paperback - 408 pages - 978-986-6118-54-8
Paperback - 368 pages - 978-0-316-41586-6
Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-61969-112-4