{"product_id":"do-not-become-alarmed-9780735216532","title":"Do Not Become Alarmed","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe moving and suspenseful new novel that Ann Patchett calls \"smart and thrilling and impossible to put down... the book that every reader longs for.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"This summer's undoubtable smash hit... an addictive, heart-palpitating story.\" --\u003ci\u003eMarie Claire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe sun is shining, the sea is blue, the children have disappeared.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When Liv and Nora decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eeveryone is thrilled. The adults are lulled by the ship's comfort and ease. The four\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003echildren--ages six to eleven--love the nonstop buffet and their newfound independence.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eBut when they all go ashore for an adventure in Central America, a series of minor\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003emisfortunes and miscalculations leads the families farther from the safety of the ship. One\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eminute the children are there, and the next they're gone.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The disintegration of the world the families knew--told from the perspectives of both the\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eadults and the children--is both riveting and revealing. The parents, accustomed to\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003esecurity and control, turn on each other and blame themselves, while the seemingly\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ehelpless children discover resources they never knew they possessed.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDo Not Become Alarmed \u003c\/i\u003eis a story about the protective force of innocence and the limits\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eof parental power, and an insightful look at privileged illusions of safety. Celebrated for\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eher spare and moving fiction, Maile Meloy has written a gripping novel about how\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003equickly what we count on can fall away, and the way a crisis shifts our perceptions of\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ewhat matters most.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaile Meloy is the author of the novels \u003ci\u003eLiars and Saints \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eA Family Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e, the short-story collections \u003ci\u003eHalf in Love\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBoth Ways Is the Only Way I Want It \u003c\/i\u003e(named one of the 10 Best Books of 2009 by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e), and a bestselling middle-grade trilogy. Her fiction has won the \u003ci\u003eParis Review\u003c\/i\u003e's Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the PEN\/Malamud Award, and the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Meloy was shortlisted for the UK's Orange Prize and chosen as one of \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Young American Novelists.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52103659454738,"sku":"9780735216532","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7031c624-55e2-4997-9d4f-291bd6e0817c.jpg?v=1773152034","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/do-not-become-alarmed-9780735216532","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}