The Winter of Our Discontent

This powerful new novel by the bestselling author ofBlack and Blue,One True Thing,Object Lessons, andA Short Guide to a Happy Lifebegins when a teenage couple drives up, late at night, headlights out, to Blessings, the estate owned by Lydia Blessing. They leave a box and drive away, and in this instant, the world of Blessings is changed forever. Richly written, deeply moving, beautifully crafted, Blessings tells the story of Skip Cuddy, caretaker of the estate, who finds a baby asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep her, and of matriarch Lydia Blessing, who, for her own reasons, decides to help him. The secrets of the past, how they affect the decisions and lives of people in the present; what makes a person, a life, legitimate or illegitimate, and who decides; the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community-these are at the center of this wonderful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the writer about whomThe Washington Post Book Worldsaid, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.”

Amy Scott-Simon, a young New York heiress, is engaged to marry Max Diamond, an older powerful real estate tycoon. At her bachelorette party, she runs into Jett, Max’s younger half-brother who is fresh back from Italy, where he is a successful male model. They have no idea who each other are. A one night fling leads to complications and regrets. Meanwhile, Chris Diamond — a hot L.A entertainment lawyer — flies into town to meet with his two brothers and Red Diamond, the boys’ dysfunctional billionaire father.