First published 2023
Mariel Prager watches her beloved Lakeside Supper Club bleed money while her world crumbles around her. Her husband Ned suffers through an identity crisis, and her mother Florence has barricaded herself inside a church for over a week. The supper club has belonged to Mariel's family for decades, but when she inherited it instead of Florence, the decision carved a permanent wound between mother and daughter. Ned comes from restaurant royalty too. His family owns a profitable chain of diners, and he believes their resources could rescue Mariel from her sinking business, even though he lacks business sense himself. Then tragedy strikes, destroying nearly everything Ned and Mariel treasure. Their dreams lie in ruins, their families' hard-earned successes teeter on the edge of collapse, and the couple must decide whether the Lakeside Supper Club can become their lifeline or their final defeat. Stradal returns to the vanishing world of Midwest dining, where relish trays and brandy Old Fashioneds anchor stories about flawed, genuine people wrestling with marriage, loss, and the weight of what they choose to preserve or abandon.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, second-chance
Setting: Lakeside Supper Club
Period: Saturday Night
340 pages · Hardcover · Pamela Dorman Books