In a state of near panic because of the nighttime activities of her teenage son, Lily Davis decides to uproot herself and Sam from Manhattan to Sakonnet Bay, a small Long Island town, where presumably the opportunities for trouble and grief are less available. She becomes a reporter for the weekly paper, Sam enrolls in high school, and for at least a few weeks life proceeds as expected. Then, through unexpected and unnerving circumstances, she spies a naked woman asleep in a summer house. And everything changes. There is a murder. Or is there? And there is a man. But he is married, and Lily is filled with guilt-about her own divorce. Friendship and love relationships unravel, or threaten to. Are people and events as they seem, or is Lily just perceiving her small town through big-city eyes?
"Gentle humor and deadpan observation," said The Boston Globe of Hanging Up. "Ephron handles her characters with a deft, delicate touch." Delia Ephron has become known for her subtle ability to mix wit and sensitivity. In this book, she outdoes herself, with quirky Lily Davis, a big-city woman attempting to make sense of small-town life.
USA Today - Catherine Captain
The trademark Ephron mixture of tenderness and humor makes Big City Eyes a delightful escape.
The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo
Ephron's always readable prose moves nicely between observant, wisecracking humor and an atmospheric creepiness.
Publishers Weekly
Lily learns she can't safeguard her son merely by shielding him from big-city dangers. The road to this hard-earned lesson takes the reader through a novel that sparkles with lively characters.
Kirkus Reviews
Good, clean, lighthearted fun with a moral ending.
Booklist
Ephron combines drugs, deer, coworkers, and gossip in a frenetic mix that shows country life to be in sharp contrast to Lily's city-dwelling expectations of peace and tranquility. Ultimately, people end up where they belong in this entertaining, if slightly silly, novel that reads like a movie concept.
From a brilliant new voice in fiction, here is a darkly comic novel full of revelation and insight.
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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