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Book Summary and Reviews of The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

The Guncle Abroad

by Steven Rowley

  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • May 2024, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Patrick O'Hara is called back to his guncle duties ... This time for a big family wedding in Italy.

Patrick O'Hara is back. It's been five years since his summer as his niece Maisie and nephew Grant's caretaker after their mother's passing. The kids are back in Connecticut with their dad, and Patrick has relocated to New York to remain close by and relaunch his dormant acting career. After the run of his second successful sit-com comes to a close, Patrick feels on top of the world ... professionally. But some things have had to take a back seat. Looking down both barrels at fifty, Patrick is single again after breaking things off with Emory. But at least he has a family to lean on. Until that family needs to again lean on him.

When Patrick's brother, Greg, announces he's getting remarried in Italy, Maisie and Grant are not thrilled. Patrick feels drawn to take the two back under his wing. As they travel through Europe on their way to the wedding, Patrick tries his best to help them understand love, much as he once helped them comprehend grief. But when they arrive in Italy, Patrick is overextended managing a groom with cold feet; his sister, Clara, flirting with guests left and right; a growing rivalry with the kids' charming soon-to-be-launt (lesbian aunt), and two moody young teens trying to adjust to a new normal, all culminating in a disastrous rehearsal dinner.

Can Patrick save the day? Will teaching the kids about love help him repair his own love life? Can the change of scenery help Patrick come to terms with finally growing up? Gracing the page with his signature blend of humor and heart, Steven Rowley charms with a beloved story about the complicated bonds of family, love, and what it takes to rediscover yourself, even at the ripe age of fifty.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Maisie, Grant, and GUP, their Gay Uncle Patrick, return in Rowley's funny, heartfelt sequel to The Guncle... . This follow-up has a humor and affection for the characters in a story with just the right amount of domestic tension but will still be a balm to readers." —Library Journal

"Rowley's cunning sequel is as much travelogue as uplifting love story, with happy endings all around." —Booklist

"The wise-cracking and wisdom-dropping protagonist of The Guncle returns for more adventures in Rowley's diverting sequel ... The author's fans will gobble this up." —Publishers Weekly

This information about The Guncle Abroad 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.

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Author Information

Steven Rowley

Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book; The Editor, an NPR Best Book of the Year; The Guncle, winner of the twenty-second Thurber Prize for American Humor and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for Novel of the Year; and The Celebrants, a Today Show Read with Jenna book club pick. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages. He resides in Palm Springs, California.

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