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A Novel
Published in paperback: May 5, 2009
For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature – Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens – and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.
As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.
"Readers will be swept up by this moving novel about female friendship and enthralled by the recounting of a pivotal year in American history as seen through these young women's eyes." - Booklist
"Clayton captures the evolution of a decades-long friendship in an highly accessible narrative. She grabs the reader's attention—while introducing compelling and quirky characters that are easy to identify with—The Wednesday Sisters is a refreshing alternative." - Salt Lake City Deseret News
Meg Waite Clayton's stirring novel will appeal not just to those who secretly wish to be writers, but to anyone with a love of great books; anyone who has felt truly moved by a book or an author; and anyone who has had their dreams bolstered by good and faithful friends. It will speak volumes to fans of The Friday Night Knitting Club and The Jane Austen Book Club. You'll want to share The Wednesday Sisters with anyone who believes in the power of a good book—to inspire those close to us, and for those who inspire - Bookreporter.com
Our Bookshelves will be all the richer with the addition of Clayton's moving, tender, and affecting stories about the importance of something we should never take for granted as time and change march on: friendship. - Gentry Magazine
"Though the narration and story lines are so syrupy they verge on hokey, Clayton ably conjures the era's details and captures the women's changing roles in a world that expects little of them." - Publishers Weekly
"This generous and inventive book is a delight to read, an evocation of the power of friendship to sustain, encourage, and embolden us. Join the sisterhood!"
- Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
"I read The Wednesday Sisters in one delicious gulp. With a smart, entrancing voice, Meg Waite Clayton sweeps us into the world of the tumultuous 1960's and beyond, and gives us the gift of five young women coming into their own as friends, mothers, wives and writers. The Wednesday Sisters takes their writing group as its core, and up until the last page, I found myself fervently rooting for each of them as if they were my friends too." - Lalita Tademy, author of Red River and Cane River
This information about The Wednesday Sisters 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.
New York Times and international bestseller and book club favorite Meg Waite Clayton is the author of nine novels, including Typewriter Beach (Harper, July 1, 2025). Her prior novels include the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris (a Good Morning America Buzz Book, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a Publishers Weekly notable book, and a Costco Book Club, People Magazine, Indie Next booksellers, LoanStars librarian, Book of the Month, USA Today, and Amazon Editors' pick which the San Francisco Chronicle calls "'Casablanca' if Rick had an artsy bent … powerful"); The Last Train to London (a National Jewish Book Award finalist Kristin Hannah calls "an absolutely fascinating, beautifully rendered story of love, loss, and heroism"); The Wednesday Sisters (...
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