Hello Beautiful
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3.4 • 83 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a beautifully tender, heartbreaking, and moving story of four sisters over three decades
Meet the Padvano girls. Best friends and sisters, they are thought of as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Chicago neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the "rocket" of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a life for herself other than the expected path of wife and mother. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other, expecting that their family will always be intact.
When Julia falls in love with William Walters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming together. A husband, a house, a family. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who steps in to help. Suddenly, things shift. Dynamics and relationships, priorities and secrets - everything that was once a given no longer is.
Rich and vivid, heartbreaking and heart-mending, Hello Beautiful captures the joy, tragedy, trust, and betrayal to ask: what does it mean to be a family? And once shattered, can it be pieced back together?
***Praise for Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano***
'Wonderful . . . a beautifully written coming-of-age story' Nina Stibbe
'Powerful' New York Times
'Ann Napolitano's writing is astonishing. I'm in awe' Marian Keyes
'Moving and emotional' Anne Tyler
'That rare book that breaks your heart and stitches it back together' Jodi Picoult
'Stunning, life-affirming' Vogue
'Made me think, nod in recognition, care about its characters, and cry, and you can't ask more of a novel than that' Emma Donoghue
©2023 Ann Napolitano (P)2023 Penguin Audio
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Ann Napolitano’s tenderhearted family drama is an exquisite and absorbing listen, made even more affecting by actress Maura Tierney’s lively, character-driven narration. College student William Waters, who used a basketball scholarship to escape his cold, emotionally neglectful home, falls in love with his spunky classmate Julia Padavano. Soon, William’s drawn into Julia’s close-knit band of sisters: independent Sylvie, creative Cecelia, and nurturing Emeline. Loosely inspired by Little Women, Hello Beautiful opens in the late ’70s and spans the next 30 years, giving us an incredible view of how our most treasured relationships can be tested by our personal choices. Tierney’s reading really makes us feel the heartbreaking events that challenge the Padavano clan’s core belief that family love can overcome anything. We just kept listening and listening to find out what would happen to these wonderful characters.
Customer Reviews
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M Xmas
*Complex family Drama*
**4.5 Stars**
Meet the Padavano Sisters
Julia
The eldest and the leader of the Sisters. She is the strongest and the one that is ambitious and knows who she is and what she wants out of life, she will also take steps to make it happen.
Sylvie just loves to read and make up stories. It is fitting that she finds herself working in a library.
Cecelia is a talented artist and is excellent especially with Murals, she is a twin.
Emeline the other of half of Cecelia, as twins they share a special bond. Emeline is the caretaker of them all and knows how to handle them.
Meet William, he is a character that is lost and seems happy coasting along with life. Sadly his older sister that he can barely remember died at a young age. The consequences of her death meant that his parents never looked at him and completely ignored his existence.
The sisters are a force to be reckoned with when they are together. When Julia see’s him she decides that he is the one for her even deciding William’s path should be, will she rue the day?… The chaotic noisy family is unlike anything that William has even known. As much as being with the family lights up William inside there is also shade when a decision is made that causes a seismic rift that affects them all. Can it ever be mended?…
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
It’s really nice