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A Novel
by Meg Howrey
Three adult sisters are faced with their mother's provocative last request in this clear-eyed and moving novel exploring choice, change, and power in the bodies and lives of four different women.
Sloane, a former actress now working as a therapist, is determined to find a meaningful way through menopause, away from marketing schemes, possibly with the aid of psychedelics. Her sister Laurel is managing her own growing rage and restlessness while engaging in work at an environmental nonprofit and raising teenagers. Nanette, the youngest, has answered a long-delayed religious calling and is living as a novice in a convent. All three lives will be further disrupted when Sloane receives a call summoning her to their mother's house, Laurel discovers possible evidence of her husband's infidelity, and Nanette finds herself in the middle of a media frenzy after a spontaneous act of public prayer.
Soon, all three are reunited under their mother's roof, and no one can seem to agree about anything beyond the obvious: Barbara has dementia, as did her mother and sister before her. Will it be an opportunity for the closed door of their very private mother's inner life to crack open? A lesson in care; a shared responsibility that will be the making of this family, divided by large age gaps, parental divorce, and temperament? Or will a stunning revelation upend not only their mother's remaining time, but divide the sisters permanently?
With razor-sharp prose and undeniable humor, acclaimed author Meg Howrey brings an American family in the midst of a painful crisis to unforgettable life, interrogating memory and emotional inheritance, the right of a woman's autonomy, and the indelible bonds even the most disparate of sisters can share.
"Body Language is one of the best novels I've read in years. It's brainy and joyful and philosophical and really, really funny. It made me cry, which few books do. And Meg Howrey's sentences—rhythmic, lithe, precise—are just incredibly pleasurable. I loved it." —Leni Zumas, author of Wolf Bells
"I loved this book. Body Language hums with lyricism, quiet power, and the kind of stubborn humor that sustains us humans in our darkest moments. Meg Howrey's tale of three complicated sisters facing their mother's decline moves deftly, inexorably from the mundane to the metaphysical. An ambitious and deeply satisfying book." —Claire Dederer, author of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
This information about Body Language 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.
Meg Howrey is the author of the novels Blind Sight, The Cranes Dance, The Wanderers, and most recently, They're Going to Love You, which was a New York Times Editor's Choice, and a New Yorker Best Book of 2022. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, Harvard Review, Vogue, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
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