February 2012 Book of the Month.

A tale of love, banishment and renewal, Rescue is a perfectly paced novel, written with Shreve's skilful lightness of touch and perceptive characterisation.  Alternating between the life-and-death scenarios Peter regularly encounters and the fraught family tension between father and daughter, the reader is gripped by the drama and emotion that Shreve so expertly builds.  Shreve is the bestelling author of Testimony, A Change in Altitude and the Orange prize shotlisted The Weight of Water.

Comparison: Sue Miller, Wendy Jean, Linda Gillard
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Synopsis

Is love always worth saving - no matter what the cost? The car crash should have killed her. But rookie paramedic Peter Webster takes the emergency call, and helps the young woman, Sheila Arsenault, to survive. After the accident, she haunts his thoughts, despite his misgivings about getting involved with a patient. Soon he is embroiled in an intense love affair and in Sheila's troubled life. Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. But Rowan is veering dangerously off course and for the first time in their quiet life together Peter fears for her future. He seeks out the only person who may be able to help Rowan, although Sheila's return is sure to unleash all the questions Peter has been carefully keeping at bay: Why would a mother leave her family? How did the marriage of two people in love unravel?

Reviews

‘The three main characters in this novel were so instantly real to me that I found it almost unbearable reading…Rescue is so well constructed, understated and emotionally true that you won’t be able to put it down.  I was dead to the world until I’d finished it…this remarkably moving and strong novel gets ten out of ten from me.’ A.N Wilson, Readers Digest

About the Author

Anita Shreve is the author of fifteen best-selling novels which have spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller Lists. The Weight of Water was short listed for the Orange Prize and The Pilot’s Wife was selected by Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Book club’ series.  Shreve started her writing career as a journalist and her award-winning short stories and non-fiction have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Esquire.  Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13.  She has two children and three stepchildren and lives in Massachusetts.   Anita Shreve was our Author of the Month in February 2012.   Author photo © Deborah Feingold More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation