Bird in Hand

Alison and Charlie, Claire and Ben seem like two picture-perfect couples. Alison and Charlie have a beautiful family and a home in the suburbs, while Claire and Ben's marriage revolves around their careers and city-based lives. Despite their differences, the two couples have remained close friends for ten years.

But one terrifying moment in the dead of a New Jersey night will quickly—and unexpectedly—expose the fractures and stresses that lie beneath the surface. Alison and Claire, best friends since childhood, are now worlds apart. And as each of them tries to find a way forward, all four will be forced to examine the choices they have made and the lives they have built, and ultimately to ask themselves: What is happiness? Does true human nature lie in our wanting or in how deeply we allow our desires to consume us?

Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: Everything is about to change.

The accident was just that — an accident. It was dark, it was raining, ALISON had two drinks in her, and the other car ran the stop sign. She just didn't get out of the way fast enough. But now a little boy — not her own — is dead, and Alison finds herself trapped under the twin burdens of grief and guilt, and feeling increasingly estranged from her husband . . .

CHARLIE, who has his own burdens. He's in a job he doesn't love so that Alison can stay home with the kids (and why isn't she more grateful for that?); he has a house in the suburbs and a long commute to and from the city each day. And the only thing can focus on these days is his secret, sudden affair with . . .

CLAIRE, Alison's best friend. Bold where Alison is reserved; vibrant where Alison is demure, Claire has just had her first novel published, a thinly-veiled retelling of her childhood in South Carolina (which is also Alison's, in a sense). But even in the whirlwind of publication, Claire can't stop wondering if she should leave her husband . . .

BEN, an architect who is thoughtful, kind, and patient. And who wants nothing more than a baby, or two — in fact, exactly the kind of life that Charlie and Alison have . . .

Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: everything is about to change.

Publishers Weekly

In her fourth novel (after The Way Life Should Be), Kline traces the construction and collapse of two long-term relationships. On her way home to New Jersey after an awkward party for her lifelong friend Claire's highly autobiographical first novel, Alison gets into a car accident that kills a boy in the other car. Even though the accident wasn't her fault, Allison, a mother of two young children, is wracked with grief and guilt. Her husband, Charlie, also struggles with the impulse to blame his wife, especially as he longs for any excuse to escalate his nascent affair with Claire and end his marriage. Episodes detailing the inevitable collapse of Alison and Charlie's marriage, as well as Claire's marriage to her well-meaning husband, Ben, are interspersed with vignettes revealing the four friends' 10-plus-year history together. Shifting perspectives and thoughtful interior monologues reveal just how isolated, and in some cases misguided, the characters are. Kline's unflinching gaze and lovely prose sets Kline's novel apart from the herd of infidelity/marital ennui novels. It's well-done, thoughtful and thought provoking. (Aug.)

Christina Baker Kline is Writerin-Residence at Fordham University and the author of The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines, and Sweet Water.