by Louis Begley
First published 2014
Albert Schmidt will not spend New Year's Eve 2008 alone. His friend Alice Verplanck travels from Paris to the Hamptons for a decisive conversation with the 78-year-old lawyer. Fifteen years earlier, Schmidt proposed to Alice, the widow of a former colleague. Years passed without contact after Schmidt's unforgivable rudeness, which neither flowers nor apologies could repair. Now they might reconcile. Schmidt navigates more than a decade of complications with Alice while managing family chaos. His ex-girlfriend Carrie, forty years younger, gives birth to a child who might be Schmidt's or her current husband's. She remains under Schmidt's paternal care. His distant daughter Charlotte, married to a Jewish lawyer Schmidt despises, attempts reconciliation during her pregnancy, then escalates their conflict. Schmidt leads a philanthropic foundation and moves through wealthy circles while trying to solve an equation involving affection, old prejudices, and past affairs. He cannot escape memories that shape his present.
Genres: contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, second-chance
Setting: Hamptons, Paris
Period: 2008
400 pages · Paperback · Companhia das Letras