Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2021
400 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Following her acclaimed debut novel, You and Me and Us, Alison Hammer offers a deeply moving story of family and identity. When a DNA test reveals a long-buried secret, a woman must look to the past to understand her mother and herself.
When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother's past and her own feelings of being the odd child out growing up, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Could this be why Paige never felt like she fit in her family, and why her mother always seemed to keep her at an arm's length? And what does it mean for Paige's memories of her father, a man she idolized and whose death she is still grieving?
Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige's mom, is a straightlaced sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her sweet but boring boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life, and is tired of playing it safe. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost.
When Paige can't get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night. The more she learns about what happened, the more she sees her unflappable, distant mother as a real person faced with an impossible choice. But will it be enough to mend their broken relationship?
Told in dual timelines, Little Pieces of Me examines identity and how the way we define ourselves changes (or not) through our life experiences.
"Hammer's second novel explores the true meaning of family in a timely, thought-provoking story of identity and self-discovery." - Library Journal (starred review)
"A gorgeous, heartbreaking-yet-hopeful story about identity, truth, and most importantly, that tender—and sometimes tense—tightrope that connects mothers and daughters. Alison Hammer has that rare gift of writing true-to-life characters that feel like good friends, and I can't wait to see what she writes next." - Colleen Oakley, USA Today bestselling author of You Were There Too
"In Little Pieces of Me, Hammer expertly weaves past and present, capturing the threads that bind one family. A story of hidden truths, identity, and parent-child relationships, readers will be drawn to these memorable characters and their journey toward understanding. Be prepared to laugh and cry along the way. Brava, Alison Hammer for another fabulous read." - Rochelle Weinstein, USA Today bestselling author
"Hammer's latest, Little Pieces of Me, an intricately woven tale told from a mother and her daughter's perspective of their family's hidden secrets. Hammer delves in deep, examining how we define ourselves – and how far we would go to learn untold truths. Readers will relish the complex characters and the captivating plot. Most of all, the powerful emotional tension is guaranteed to keep you turning pages well past your bed-time. - Lisa Barr, award-winning author of The Unbreakables
"A powerful story of family and connection that is just as fun as it is heartbreaking. I didn't want the story to end." - Jill Santopolo, New York Times bestselling author of The Light We Lost and Everything After
This information about Little Pieces of Me was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Founder of Every Damn Day Writers, Alison Hammer has been spinning words to tell stories since she learned how to talk. A graduate of the University of Florida and the Creative Circus in Atlanta, she lived in 9 cities before settling down in Chicago. During the day, Alison is a VP Creative Director at FCB Chicago, but on nights and weekends you can find her writing upmarket women's fiction. You and Me and Us was her debut novel, and her second novel, Little Pieces of Me, was released April 13th, 2021 by William Morrow (HarperCollins).
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