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Overview
Friends since earliest childhood, Annie, Jake, and Mason have a special bond. When Annie's parents die on the same night that she and Mason get married, the three friends decide to raise Annie's infant sister, Opal, together. But their bonds of intimacy, already entangled, become dangerously close, on the line. One fateful night, the three friends goad one another into crossing that line with shocking consequences.
Synopsis
The new novel from the author of Stones from the River, a New York Times bestseller!
Friends since earliest childhood, Annie, Jake, and Mason have a special bond. When Annie's parents die on the same night that she and Mason get married, the three friends decide to raise Annie's infant sister, Opal, together. Not surprisingly, their bonds of intimacy, already deeply entangled, become strained. As Annie struggles, events take on a momentum of their own. And then, one fateful night, the three friends goad each other into stepping over a line, with shocking consequences for each of them.
The Washington Post - Ann Hood
"The Worst Thing I've Done is the work of a mature and masterful writer at her peak. The layering -- the collage -- of character and point of view, tragedy and healing, creativity and loss, loyalty and fidelity, love and jealousy, all combine with lyrical prose in a story that resonates long after its end."
Editorials
From the Publisher
"The Worst Thing I've Done is a beautiful book, exploring the mysterious, ever-shifting boundaries of love and desire. Drawn with glimpses of startling beauty and a constant sense of discovery, the moments of these lives, ordinary and painful, luminous and haunting, are cast artfully, compellingly, into a remarkable, moving story of acceptance and courage and change." — Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter"Ursula Hegi, always a master of illuminating the human condition, has in this novel the clear tone and brilliance of water in a pond, and the urgency of storm-tossed coasts. Her characters must navigate their own lives and sorrows and passions, and readers will follow along with held breath and hope." — Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon
"Ursula Hegi's fearless excavation of passion takes us into gripping and dangerous territory. She is that most subtle and powerful of writers who can illuminate the darkest ambiguities of the human soul - showing us how even the truest love can be shaded with the destructive." — Shira Nayman, author of Awake in the Dark
"Ursula Hegi always writes about the important moments between people, filtered through history, both personal and political. She is a writer of grace and immediacy." — Meg Wolitzer, author of The Position
Ann Hood
"The Worst Thing I've Done is the work of a mature and masterful writer at her peak. The layering -- the collage -- of character and point of view, tragedy and healing, creativity and loss, loyalty and fidelity, love and jealousy, all combine with lyrical prose in a story that resonates long after its end."—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
The troubles specific to triangular relationships are explored with depth and substance in Hegi's complex and affecting latest. Annie, Jake and Mason-friends practically from the womb-have developed a fraught dynamic sharply affected by competitiveness, attraction and jealousy. The book's opening trauma-Mason's suicide-serves as a springboard for Hegi to delve into the friends' tangled past: Mason and Annie get married the same night Annie's father and very pregnant mother die in a car wreck. The baby, Opal, survives, and the three friends raise her. But festering attractions-Mason to Jake; Jake to Annie-lead Mason to cross a line, Annie to want out of the marriage and Jake to fail to act at a pivotal moment. Woven into the mix is the post-WWII story of Annie's immigrant mother, Lotte, and her friend Mechthild, who came to America from Germany to work as au pairs and pretended to be Dutch to avoid persecution. Though a bumper crop of tragedy weighs heavily on this controlled and articulate novel, Hegi (Sacred Time) is an accomplished storyteller; she inhabits different characters and blends the past with the present to tell a rich story of love, death, loyalty and survival. (Oct.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationSan Francisco Chronicle
"[Heg] is as skilled at piecing together an intricate storytelling design as Annie is at creating beautiful, complex collages.... Hegi, who has written often of large families and difficult relationships, convincingly plumbs the psychological processes of grief."
Library Journal
In Hegi's latest, the life of the protagonist, Annie, is framed by two catastrophes. One is the death of her parents on her wedding day. Her mother had been pregnant, and Annie and husband Mason end up raising her orphaned infant sister, who survived the wreck. The other-connected to a romantic triangle involving their childhood friend Jake-is Mason's suicide eight years later. The novel unfolds during the year after Mason's death as Annie and her sister/daughter, Opal, try to heal. As in her best-selling Stones from the River, Hegi addresses familiar themes such self-destruction and parental abandonment. She also offers rich characterizations, especially that of Aunt Stormy, a middle-aged German who wishes coveted possessions away from others, attends peace rallies, hosts an annual emotional cleansing ritual, explores the natural world with relish, and loves with abandon. One of Hegi's most enchanting skills is her ability to re-create setting, here a Long Island coastal community. While this book lacks the rich canvas of Stones from the River, it is a moving exploration of grief. Recommended for all libraries.
—Evelyn Beck