by Julia Glass
First published 2010
Percy Darling enjoys his quiet retirement in a farmhouse outside Boston. At seventy, he reads novels, watches movies, and swims naked in his pond. Then a local preschool moves into his barn. Children, parents, and teachers flood his property. Percy must face the community he has avoided for thirty years since his wife died suddenly. He reconnects with his two daughters and falls in love again. His grandson Robert studies premed at Harvard but questions his path when his roommate promotes radical environmental activism. Two other men enter Percy's world. Ira teaches at the preschool. Celestino gardens for Percy's neighbor. Each man fights his own sense of exile. Their choices crash together one spring evening and change everyone's life. Percy's world transforms most of all.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Boston, Harvard
Period: 21st-century
402 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon