The Forever Girl
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
The author of the best-selling and universally adored No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series now gives us The Forever Girl, a novel about love and following one’s heart, and the unexpected places to which this can lead us.
Amanda and her husband, David, feel fortunate to be raising their son and daughter in the close-knit community of ex-pats on Grand Cayman Island, an idyllic place for children to grow up. Their firstborn, Sally, has always listened to her heart, deciding at age four that she would rather be called Clover and then, a few years later, falling in love with her best friend, James.
But the comforting embrace of island life can become claustrophobic for adults, especially when they are faced with difficult situations. At the same time that Clover falls in love with James, Amanda realizes that she has fallen out of love with David . . . and that she is interested in someone else. While Amanda tries to navigate the new path her heart is leading her down, Clover finds, much to her dismay, that James seems to be growing away from her. And when they leave the island for boarding school—James to England and Clover to Scotland—she feels she may have lost him for good. As Clover moves on to university, seldom seeing James but always carrying him in her heart, she finds herself torn between a desire to go forward with her life and the old feelings that she just can’t shed.
Through the lives of Clover and James, and Amanda and David, acclaimed storyteller Alexander McCall Smith tells a tale full of love and heartbreak, humor and melancholy, that beautifully demonstrates the myriad ways in which love shapes our lives.
This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
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Alexander McCall Smith. (2014). The Forever Girl. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Alexander McCall Smith. 2014. The Forever Girl. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Alexander McCall Smith, The Forever Girl. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014.
MLA Citation (style guide)Alexander McCall Smith. The Forever Girl. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 3 | 3 |
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Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series, and the Corduroy Mansions series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served with many national and international organizations concerned with bioethics. He lives in Scotland.
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The author of the best-selling and universally adored No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series now gives us The Forever Girl, a novel about love and following one’s heart, and the unexpected places to which this can lead us.
Amanda and her husband, David, feel fortunate to be raising their son and daughter in the close-knit community of ex-pats on Grand Cayman Island, an idyllic place for children to grow up. Their firstborn, Sally, has always listened to her heart, deciding at age four that she would rather be called Clover and then, a few years later, falling in love with her best friend, James.
But the comforting embrace of island life can become claustrophobic for adults, especially when they are faced with difficult situations. At the same time that Clover falls in love with James, Amanda realizes that she has fallen out of love with David . . . and that she is interested in someone else. While Amanda tries to navigate the new path her heart is leading her down, Clover finds, much to her dismay, that James seems to be growing away from her. And when they leave the island for boarding school—James to England and Clover to Scotland—she feels she may have lost him for good. As Clover moves on to university, seldom seeing James but always carrying him in her heart, she finds herself torn between a desire to go forward with her life and the old feelings that she just can’t shed.
Through the lives of Clover and James, and Amanda and David, acclaimed storyteller Alexander McCall Smith tells a tale full of love and heartbreak, humor and melancholy, that beautifully demonstrates the myriad ways in which love shapes our lives.
This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.- reviews
- premium: False
- source: Booklist (starred review)
- content:
"What may seem like an ordinary love tangle is a very rich stew of contemporary mores and a great stage for both comedy and heartbreak."
- premium: False
- source: Library Journal
- content: "Touchingly conceived. . . . In the end we see that love unfulfilled still makes a difference."
- premium: False
- source: The New York Times
- content: Praise for Alexander McCall Smith:
"McCall Smith's generous writing and dry humor, his gentleness and humanity, and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characters without caricature or condescension have endeared his books to readers."
- premium: False
- source: The Independent (London)
- content: "McCall Smith's novels are beautifully precise and psychologically acute."
- premium: False
- source: The Plain Dealer
- content: "A vivid observer and an elegant writer."
- premium: False
- source: Newsday
- content: "McCall Smith's accomplished novels [are] dependent on small gestures redolent with meaning and main characters blessed with pleasing personalities . . . These novels are gentle probes into the mysteries of human nature."
- premium: True
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- content:
March 3, 2014
Smith (Trains and Lovers) sets his latest novel in Grand Cayman's community of wealthy expatriates. Amanda raises two children, Clover and Billy, while her husband David shows " in figures and money and not much else." Though tempted to begin a love affair with local doctor George Collins, Amanda chooses to move to Scotland instead, where she enrolls her children in boarding school. The novel's first half devotes an occasional chapter to young Clover, who asserts that George's son, James, is "the one want." The second half essentially abandons Amanda's story and follows her daughter to university in Edinburgh. Smith makes nothing of that the connection between Amanda and Clover falling for different generations of the same family, and the novel suffers greatly from its commitment to restraint. There is much talk of passionâGeorge describes love as "discovering the map that you've been looking for all your life and have never been able to find"âbut there is little evidence of that passion in the characters. Readers never have a clear sense of anyone's physicality, and Clover's love for James is largely founded on the fact that he is "kind." The prose is cool and reserved, though the storyâa story of love that leads a woman all over the globeâbegs for more warmth and intensity. Agent: Robin Straus, Robin Straus Agency.
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September 15, 2013
No, not another "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" novel. This touchingly conceived stand-alone features the story of childhood playmates Thursday and James, whose lives become a star-crossed love affair. Thursday falls for James as a six-year-old, but he drifts off--about the time Thursday's mom falls out of love with her husband and notices James's father noticing her. Thursday follows James to college and eventually around the world--to London, Sydney, and Singapore--each time remaking her life in a bid to recapture James's attention. In the end, we see that love unfulfilled still makes a difference. Look for a big prepublication tour.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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The author of the best-selling and universally adored No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series now gives us The Forever Girl, a novel about love and following one’s heart, and the unexpected places to which this can lead us.
Amanda and her husband, David, feel fortunate to be raising their son and daughter in the close-knit community of ex-pats on Grand Cayman Island, an idyllic place for children to grow up. Their firstborn, Sally, has always listened to her heart, deciding at age four that she would rather be called Clover and then, a few years later, falling in love with her best friend, James.
But the comforting embrace of island life can become claustrophobic for adults, especially when they are faced with difficult situations. At the same time that Clover falls in love with James, Amanda realizes that she has fallen out of love with David . . . and that she is interested in someone else. While Amanda tries to navigate the...- sortTitle
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