Lifelines

<strong>A graceful attentive and beautiful debut. -- George Saunders</strong> <p/><strong>For fans of Meg Wolitzer and Maggie Shipstead: a sweeping debut novel following an American artist who returns to Germany--where she fell in love and had a child decades earlier--to confront her past at her former mother-in-law's funeral</strong> <p/> It's 1971 when Louise leaves Oregon for Düsseldorf a city grappling with its nation's horrific recent history to study art. Soon she's embroiled in a scene dramatically different from the one at home thanks in large part to Dieter a mercurial musician. Their romance ignites quickly but life gets in the way: an unplanned pregnancy hasty marriage the tense balance of their creative ambitions and--finally fatally--a family secret that shatters Dieter and drives Louise home. <p/> But in 2008 she's headed to Dieter's mother's funeral. She never returned to Germany and has since remarried had another daughter and built a life in Oregon. As she flies into the heart of her past she reckons with the choices she made and the ones she didn't just as her family--current and former--must consider how Louise's life has shaped their own for better and for worse. <p/> Exquisitely balanced expansive yet wonderfully intimate <em>Lifelines</em> explores the indelible ties of family; the shape art history and nationality give to our lives; and the ways in which we are forever evolving with each step we take with each turn of the Earth. <br>