Ann Hood is a captivating storyteller-I devoured this novel. Ava rediscovers a mysterious book from her childhoodone that helped her through the traumas of the untimely deaths of her sister and mother. We find out that Ava is alone because her children are grown, her husband left her for another woman, her sister died when she was young, after which her mother disappeared, and her father has dementia. The Book That Matters Most is an exhilarating celebration of all that books awaken within us: joy, love, wisdom, loss, solace. This novel is about how a fictional book matters most to its main character, Ava.

And third, it's inspiration for book groups. Second, it's full of great book suggestions. The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood works on so many levels. But it's the delicate exploration of human fallibility - of love, loss, regret and redemption that make this one of those rare and wonderful books that truly matter.-Ann Leary, New York Times bestselling author of The Good House The experience of reading Mary Beth Keane’s absorbing new novel, The Half Moon, feels pleasantly like breathing, or maybe just living. Book groups - indeed, book lovers of all kinds-will delight in this compulsively and effortlessly readable novel.-Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan TrainĮngrossing.I admire this graceful and intimate writer for her literary sleight of hand: you don't so much read about her characters as you inhabit them.-Elizabeth Berg, author of The Dream LoverĪnn Hood's eye for the absurd, her masterful prose and vivid characters instantly draw you into this compelling story about mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and lovers. There’s an intimacy to a book that we can’t get from a movie or a TV show, no matter how true it is even in 3-D, in the highest of high def. Hood's novel is rich with pleasures, and will no doubt launch a thousand book club discussions.Ī love of words, of reading, propels the characters from heartbreak to discovery. Hood examines the push and pull between mothers and grown children and the transformative power of fiction.

The book that matters most a novel