Sách The Girl Next Door

Noble charts the intertwining lives of the residents of a New York City apartment building in her charming love letter to Manhattan. After banker Ed Gallagher's promotion necessitates a move from the U.K. to New York, he and his wife, Eve, are thrilled to find the perfect Upper East Side apartment, though Eve struggles to meet people until she befriends Violet Wallace, an 82-year-old fellow Englishwoman in her building who enchants her with the story of her path to Manhattan. Elsewhere in the building, shiftless trust fund baby Jackson Grayling III has fallen in love with Emily Mikanowski, a stunner living downstairs, while Emily's downstairs neighbor and friend, frumpy librarian Charlotte, works up the nerve to speak to Che, the Cuban doorman. And on the sixth floor, the Kramers and Schulmans, married couples with young children, struggle with two sets of very different marital problems. Noble (The Reading Group) presents her sprawling cast without neglecting them as characters or confusing the reader, and though she's got something of a wooden ear for her younger characters' dialogue, her handle on heartbreak and hopefulness is admirable. (Dec.)
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The author of Things I Want My Daughters to Know (2008) follows the fortunes of the varied denizens of a tony New York apartment building. Brit Eve Gallagher accompanies her husband, Ed, across the pond to New York after he receives a transfer and a promotion. She finds the transition difficult but makes an unexpected friend, an older Englishwoman who also resides in the building. Shy, overweight Charlotte dreams of romance but can’t bring herself to approach the doorman who has caught her eye, while her new friend Emily is cautiously dating wealthy ne’er-do-well Trip, who has fallen hard for the reclusive beauty. Two married couples teeter on the brink of disaster: Jason has grown more and more distant from his wife, Kim, since the birth of their child, while Rachel is stunned to find a serious crack in her perfect marriage to David. The nuances and foibles of Noble’s characters will draw in readers looking for a bit of depth and heart in their chick lit. --Kristine Huntley