All That You Can Leave Behind
Diana Friedman
At the center of this contemporary story of desire, dislocation and U2 infatuation is Jeannie Miller, a typically harried Washington D.C. working mother. Like so many working moms, Jeannie is bound by the usual couplets; two kids, two cars, and too much to do. Her problems are further complicated by the growing fissures in her marriage and her insecurities about her ability to care for her children as her workload mounts. She is also plagued by a discomfiting awareness that she has lost sight of her writing aspirations, long since buried in her job composing dreary copy for a federal agency.
When Jeannie, in a halfhearted attempt to tame her long-standing U2 infatuation, orders an indie CD from a small shop in Ireland, and strikes up a friendship with the owner, Killian Keaney, her entire world cracks open.
At first, Killian’s e-mails, light-hearted and humorous, provide a welcome relief to Jeannie’s swelling dissatisfactions. From there, it doesn’t take long for them to discover a shared passion for the written word, and, more profoundly, a shared fragility and intimacy. By the time she and Killian meet in Dublin, the consequences are far greater than either could have imagined, leaving Jeannie forced to face some hard truths about what you can and cannot leave behind.
Read an excerpt here...
When Jeannie, in a halfhearted attempt to tame her long-standing U2 infatuation, orders an indie CD from a small shop in Ireland, and strikes up a friendship with the owner, Killian Keaney, her entire world cracks open.
At first, Killian’s e-mails, light-hearted and humorous, provide a welcome relief to Jeannie’s swelling dissatisfactions. From there, it doesn’t take long for them to discover a shared passion for the written word, and, more profoundly, a shared fragility and intimacy. By the time she and Killian meet in Dublin, the consequences are far greater than either could have imagined, leaving Jeannie forced to face some hard truths about what you can and cannot leave behind.
Read an excerpt here...