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Description
A New York Times bestselling author delivers a tantalizing, courageous story about mothers and daughters, guilt and innocence, and the lengths we go for love.
As a teenager, for a moment, Ella Fitchburg found love—yearning, breathless love—that consumed both her and her boyfriend, Jude, as they wandered the streets of New York City together. But her life was unexpectedly upended when she was accused of trying to murder Jude’s father, an imperious superior court judge, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. When she learns she’s pregnant shortly after sentencing, she reluctantly decides to give up the child.
Ella is released after serving only six years. While she is desperate to turn the page on a new life, she can’t seem to let go of her past. With only an address as a possible lead, she moves to Ann Arbor, Michigan, determined to get her daughter back. Forced to hide her identity and complicated past and live in a constant state of deception, she finds that what she’s been searching for all along is a way to uncover and live with the truth. Yet a central mystery endures: neither Jude nor Ella can remember the events leading up to the attempted murder—that fateful night which led to Ella’s conviction.
For fans of Miranda Cowley Heller’s The Paper Palace and Allegra Goodman’s Sam, Caroline Leavitt’s Days of Wonder is a gripping high-drama page-turner about the elusive nature of redemption and the profound reach of love.
As a teenager, for a moment, Ella Fitchburg found love—yearning, breathless love—that consumed both her and her boyfriend, Jude, as they wandered the streets of New York City together. But her life was unexpectedly upended when she was accused of trying to murder Jude’s father, an imperious superior court judge, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. When she learns she’s pregnant shortly after sentencing, she reluctantly decides to give up the child.
Ella is released after serving only six years. While she is desperate to turn the page on a new life, she can’t seem to let go of her past. With only an address as a possible lead, she moves to Ann Arbor, Michigan, determined to get her daughter back. Forced to hide her identity and complicated past and live in a constant state of deception, she finds that what she’s been searching for all along is a way to uncover and live with the truth. Yet a central mystery endures: neither Jude nor Ella can remember the events leading up to the attempted murder—that fateful night which led to Ella’s conviction.
For fans of Miranda Cowley Heller’s The Paper Palace and Allegra Goodman’s Sam, Caroline Leavitt’s Days of Wonder is a gripping high-drama page-turner about the elusive nature of redemption and the profound reach of love.
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Praise
“Caroline Leavitt has crafted a novel rich in empathy and a story that will resonate with every reader. When Ella and Jude's young love goes awry, they struggle for a maturity that allows them to see that their past mistakes are in fact doors to a new, more beautiful life.”
—Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful
“What a phenomenal novel! Poignant, thrilling and moving, Caroline Leavitt's Days of Wonder grabbed me from the very first page and wouldn't let go. Leavitt is a master of plotting, pacing and language. This intricately woven, beautifully written novel is a joy.”
—Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvia Lee
"There is good reason Caroline Leavitt is considered our great American storyteller. Days of Wonder, her incandescent novel of young love, loss and regret will not leave you when you reach the end. Ella Fitchburg is a total original, her struggles for truth, connection and forgiveness are our own. This layered novel is woven with the tender thread of love, which saves Ella and redeems a past she cannot escape. Superb."
—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone
“As compassionate as it is complex, Days of Wonder is a completely absorbing story of loss, injustice, and the canyons of misconception left behind. Both a coming-of-age love story and a tale of motherhood, the emotional resonance will stay with you long after the final page.”
—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
“Fearless… the tabloid scandals start early and never stop in Leavitt’s latest… If you love old-fashioned Hollywood melodrama, this may be just your cup of foxglove tea.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Days of Wonder is unputdownable for all the best reasons. It's packed with style, pathos, and humor. It's got a killer plot, a great heroine, and brilliance on every page. It is, in short, a masterpiece. If you're not a Leavitt fan, you just haven't read Days of Wonder.”
—Darin Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Half a Life
“In this heart-rending page-turner, Caroline Leavitt spins a complex web of mother-daughter relationships in the aftermath of a tragically impulsive act that shatters the lives of two teenage lovers. With a tender, incisive eye, she shows how resilience can be forged from regret and hope from remorse.”
—Julia Glass, New York Times bestselling author of Vigil Harbor
“Caroline Leavitt is a national treasure. I've been reading her novels from the very first and I can say that no one writes about the bond of motherhood like Leavitt. I loved Days of Wonder and simply couldn’t put it down. A warm, big-hearted story of love and longing, the novel gets at the very essence of what it means to be a mother and a daughter, a friend and a wife. Like all of Leavitt's novels, this latest offers the most profound narrative pleasures. Days of Wonder may be her best yet.”
—Joanna Rakoff, bestselling author of My Salinger Year and A Fortunate Age