{"product_id":"if-you-left-9780544263680","title":"If You Left","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA seductive novel about a privileged but damaged Manhattan wife whose main source of stability -- her marriage -- comes under threat, from forces both without and within.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For most of their marriage, Althea has fluctuated between extreme depressive and manic states -- what she calls \"the Tombs\" and \"the Visions\" -- and Oliver has been the steady hand that guided her to safety. This summer, Althea decides that she will be different from here on. She will be the loving, sexy wife Oliver wants, and the reliable, affectionate mother their nine year-old daughter Clem deserves. Her plan: to bring Clem to their Easthampton home once school is out -- with no \"summer girl\" to care for her this time -- and become \"normal.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Oliver is distant and controlling, and his relationship with their interior decorator seems a bit too close; Clem has learned to be self-sufficient, and getting to know her now feels like very hard work for Althea. Into this scene enters the much younger, David Foster Wallace-reading house painter, who reaches something in Althea that has been long buried. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFearless, darkly funny, and compulsively readable, \u003ci\u003e If You Left\u003c\/i\u003e explores the complex dance that is the bipolar marriage, and the possibility that to move forward, we might have to destroy the very things we've worked hardest to build.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eASHLEY PRENTICE NORTON is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel \u003ci\u003eThe Chocolate Money, \u003c\/i\u003e and a graduate of Exeter, Georgetown, and the creative writing program at New York University. She lives in New York with her husband and three children.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844695101714,"sku":"9780544263680","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f6f3d76d-17d2-48a5-9c35-2619a5b29505.jpg?v=1737329798","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/if-you-left-9780544263680","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}