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Overview
It takes just one phone call to change your life...
On a steamy August morning, Sarah Larkin drops her six-year-old daughter, Eliza, off at camp and heads to her office, where she works as an editor of a women's magazine. Sitting at her desk testing a $450 face cream, she is just rubbing it into her forearm when the phone rings.
Detective Ronald Brook, speaking softly and deliberately, tells Sarah that her husband has vanished. A keening sound escapes from Sarah's throat as the detective lays out the few facts he knows.
A noted sculptor, Todd Larkin went swimming at midnight off the coast of Florida and hasn't returned. He was staying with a woman. He was drinking. He left behind his keys, wallet, cell phone, and his return airline ticket. They also found two drawings and pieces of a sculpture. But there is no trace of him or his body. The coast guard has been scouring the shoreline, but no one has seen a thing.
Has Todd run off to start a new life or is he dead? Could it have been an accident, suicide, or homicide? Immediately, Sarah's life spins into a world of uncer-tainty, hope, and fear as she grapples with the mystery of his disappearance.
As Sarah tries to discover what happened to the man she thought she knew better than anyone, she is forced to confront the love and resentments, the hopes and disappointments of her marriage. And through it all, she must find a way to help her young daughter deal with the crisis while meeting the demands of the high-powered magazine world.
Based on the author's own experiences, Waiting to Surface is a beautiful and haunting story about coming to terms with loss, learning to live in a world without answers, and discovering the ability to treasure love once again.
Synopsis
It takes just one phone call to change your life...
On a steamy August morning, Sarah Larkin drops her six-year-old daughter, Eliza, off at camp and heads to her office, where she works as an editor of a women's magazine. Sitting at her desk testing a $450 face cream, she is just rubbing it into her forearm when the phone rings.
Detective Ronald Brook, speaking softly and deliberately, tells Sarah that her husband has vanished. A keening sound escapes from Sarah's throat as the detective lays out the few facts he knows.
A noted sculptor, Todd Larkin went swimming at midnight off the coast of Florida and hasn't returned. He was staying with a woman. He was drinking. He left behind his keys, wallet, cell phone, and his return airline ticket. They also found two drawings and pieces of a sculpture. But there is no trace of him or his body. The coast guard has been scouring the shoreline, but no one has seen a thing.
Has Todd run off to start a new life or is he dead? Could it have been an accident, suicide, or homicide? Immediately, Sarah's life spins into a world of uncer-tainty, hope, and fear as she grapples with the mystery of his disappearance.
As Sarah tries to discover what happened to the man she thought she knew better than anyone, she is forced to confront the love and resentments, the hopes and disappointments of her marriage. And through it all, she must find a way to help her young daughter deal with the crisis while meeting the demands of the high-powered magazine world.
Based on the author's own experiences, Waiting to Surface is a beautiful and haunting story about coming to terms with loss, learning to live in a world without answers,and discovering the ability to treasure love once again.
Publishers Weekly
A woman copes with tragedy and the banalities of New York life in Listfield's deeply personal sixth novel. Based on the real-life disappearance of Listfield's husband, the novel revolves around Sarah Larkin, an art lover who actually enjoys her job as an editor at a glossy women's mag. Her alcoholic sculptor husband, Todd, though, is less than happy, and flees the disintegrating marriage, ostensibly to visit an old school friend in Florida. Sarah and their six-year-old daughter, Eliza, await his return, but a phone call from a Florida policeman signals trouble: Todd has been staying with a woman and has been reported as missing. Sarah's life then spreads out into several directions. Most immediate is the investigation into Todd's disappearance (suicide is one theory), with a skeptical cop, a kindly private eye and Todd's ex as its cross-purposed cast. Sarah also navigates infighting among the ambitious and sometimes reptilian magazine staff (who mostly feel like something out of a less ambitious novel) and meets a caring and handsome new love interest. Not all of these subplots work well together, but the through line-Sarah's and Eliza's attempt to find their new normal-does more than its share to carry the book. (Oct.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationEditorials
Publishers Weekly
A woman copes with tragedy and the banalities of New York life in Listfield's deeply personal sixth novel. Based on the real-life disappearance of Listfield's husband, the novel revolves around Sarah Larkin, an art lover who actually enjoys her job as an editor at a glossy women's mag. Her alcoholic sculptor husband, Todd, though, is less than happy, and flees the disintegrating marriage, ostensibly to visit an old school friend in Florida. Sarah and their six-year-old daughter, Eliza, await his return, but a phone call from a Florida policeman signals trouble: Todd has been staying with a woman and has been reported as missing. Sarah's life then spreads out into several directions. Most immediate is the investigation into Todd's disappearance (suicide is one theory), with a skeptical cop, a kindly private eye and Todd's ex as its cross-purposed cast. Sarah also navigates infighting among the ambitious and sometimes reptilian magazine staff (who mostly feel like something out of a less ambitious novel) and meets a caring and handsome new love interest. Not all of these subplots work well together, but the through line-Sarah's and Eliza's attempt to find their new normal-does more than its share to carry the book. (Oct.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
Former Selfmagazine editor and novelist Listfield (Acts of Love) draws from personal experience in this story of a woman whose husband vanishes off Florida's coast. Mother of a small daughter, magazine editor Sarah has a less than happy marriage to Todd, an underappreciated artist whose alcoholism has destroyed the couple's previous contentedness. Todd, formerly a devoted, caring father to six-year-old Eliza, takes off for Florida to help a friend remodel a house. When Sarah receives word that her husband is missing, numerous questions follow. Readers interested in either a step-by-step police procedural or an insider's view of the magazine world may want to keep searching. Listfield tries to offer both here but achieves neither. Sarah's nightmarish plight is intriguing, as is her struggle to come to terms with her loss, but readers may wish for more depth. The narrative seems padded and is often marred by weak character development. An optional purchase for public libraries. [The author's own artist husband vanished in 1999.-Ed.]
—Andrea Tarr