Tim Welch is a popular history teacher at the Montague Academy, an exclusive private school in Brooklyn Heights. As he says, "I was an odd-looking, gawky kid but I like to think my rocky start forced me to develop empathy, kindness, and a tendency to be enthusiastic. All of this, I'm now convinced, helped in my quest to be worthy of Kate Oliver." Now, Kate is not inherently ordinary. But she aspires to be. She stays home with their two young sons in a modest apartment trying desperately to become the parent she never had. They are seemingly the last middle-class family in the Heights, whose world is turned upside down by Anna Brody, the new neighbor who moves into the most expensive brownstone in Brooklyn, sending the local society into a tailspin. Anna is not only beautiful and wealthy; she's also mysterious. And for reasons Kate doesn't quite understand, even as all the Range Rover- driving moms jockey for invitations into Anna's circle, Anna sets her sights on Kate and Tim and brings them into her world. Like Tom Perrotta, Peter Hedges has a keen eye for the surprising truths of daily life. The Heights is at once light of touch and packed with emotion and depth of character.
The Washington Post - Susan Coll …quirky, amusing…Culturally and geographically, Hedges is a long way from the small Iowa town of his breakthrough 1991 debut, What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Yet the author brings with him a similarly earnest Midwestern sensibility, which is what's most notable about this book. There's a surprising and possibly refreshing lack of cynicism here. If you like your male-driven domestic novels dark (think Tom Perrotta's Little Children, or more recently Jess Walter's The Financial Lives of the Poets ), The Heights may lack bite. But if you've had enough suburban nihilism, Hedges brightens things up, even if his conclusions are not all sweetness and light.

Hedges, Peter

Penguin Publishing Group

N A L

United States, United States of America

New York, 2011], ©2010

February 22, 2011

Reprint, 2011

A "devilishly delightful" (Bookpage) new novel from an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and the author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Tim and Kate Welch are seemingly the last middle- class family in the exclusive neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, NewYork. Tim is a popular history teacher, and an ordinary guy. Kate is not ordinary, but she aspires to be. Brought up by a hippie mother, Kate stays home with their two young sons trying to be the responsible parent she never had. But their neat and tidy world is turned upside down when Anna Brody- beautiful, wealthy, and impulsive-moves into the most expensive brownstone in Brooklyn, and draws Kate and Tim into her world.

Originally published: New York : Dutton, 2010
The loving marriage of Tim and Kate is unexpectedly challenged by their efforts to retain normalcy, the unsolicited attentions of a society newcomer, and an unsettling secret

2023-06-28