Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2009
240 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
It has been twenty-two years since Beth Cappadora’s three-year-old son Ben was abducted. By some miracle, he returned nine years later, and the family began to pick up the pieces of their lives. But their peace has always been fragile: Ben returned from the deep end as another child and has never felt entirely at ease with the family he was born into. Now the Cappadora children are grown: Ben is married with a baby girl, Kerry is studying to be an opera singer, and Vincent has emerged from his troubled adolescence as a fledgling filmmaker.
The subject of Vincent’s new documentary, “No Time to Wave Goodbye,” shakes Vincent’s unsuspecting family to the core; it focuses on five families caught in the tortuous web of never knowing the fate of their abducted children. Though Beth tries to stave off the torrent of buried emotions, she is left wondering if she and her family are fated to relive the past forever.
The film earns tremendous acclaim, but just as the Cappadoras are about to celebrate the culmination of Vincent’s artistic success, what Beth fears the most occurs, and the Cappadoras are cast back into the past, revisiting the worst moment of their lives – with only hours to find the truth that can save a life. High in a rugged California mountain range, their rescue becomes a desperate struggle for survival.
"Starred Review. This action-packed and emotionally rich drama is every bit as satisfying as its predecessor." - Publishers Weekly
"While the original novel focused poignantly on the inner world and grief of Beth Cappadora, the sequel is firmly in suspense and adventure territory." - Library Journal
"Lackluster...The proliferation of characters may confuse readers, especially those unfamiliar with the earlier book, and a disproportionately large chunk of the narrative is devoted to exposition..." - Kirkus Reviews
"For everyone who adored The Deep End of the Ocean – rejoice! Mitchard's latest brings back the Cappadora family, as the most unexpected of tragedies forces them to test the relationships they've built in the wake of Ben's return. It's vintage Mitchard: full of characters you feel like you already know, and a plot that keeps you reading till the last page." - Jodi Picoult
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
New York Times bestseller Jacquelyn Mitchard's novels include The Deep End of the Ocean, Twelve Times Blessed, and The Breakdown Lane. She is also the author of The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, a collection of her newspaper columns. She lives with her husband and six children in Madison, Wisconsin.
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