All That Is Solid Melts into Air

Name: All That Is Solid Melts into Air
Brand: Findaway
Availability: InStock
Author: Carole Giangrande
ISBN: 9781771338400

Author: Carole Giangrande

Narrator: Mary Fisher

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: ECW Press

Published: 10/15/2021

Categories: Fiction, Women, Family Life, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

In the morning fog of the North Atlantic, Valerie hears the frenetic ticking of clocks. She’s come from Toronto to hike on the French island of St. Pierre and to ponder her marriage to Gerard Lefèvre, a Montrealer and a broadcast journalist whose passion for justice was ignited in his youth by the death of his lover in an airline bombing. He’s a restless traveller (who she suspects is unfaithful) and she’s the opposite: quiet, with an inner life she nurtures as a horticulturalist. Valerie’s thinking about Gerard on assignment in her native New York City, where their son Andre works. In New York City, an airplane has plunged into a skyscraper, and in the short time before anyone understands the significance of this event, Valerie’s mind begins to spiral in and out of the present moment, circling around her intense memories of her father’s death, her youthful relationship with troubled Matthew, and her pregnancy with his child, the crisis that led to her marriage to Gerard, and her fears for the safety of her son Andre and his partner James. Unable to reach her loved ones, Valerie finds memory intruding on a surreal and dreamlike present until at last she connects with Gerard and the final horror of that day.

Reviews

Goodreads review by DJ on May 27, 2017

Favorite Quotes: I’ve found your gardening website, and it feels like Eden before sin, he wrote. Valerie went online and told Matt to pitch the holy water and talk like a normal human being. When she was little, Karen would tell her that if you put a cattail in water overnight, you’d have a kitten in......more

Goodreads review by Irene on May 21, 2017

This book is lovely and interesting. Valerie has gone to St. Pierre on a solo vacation to mull over her marriage. While there, 9-11 hits. Her son works in the twin towers; her husband is a journalist who covers the attack. Routine chores help her through that first day while she struggles to get inf......more

Goodreads review by Mary on July 30, 2017

The immediacy of the events of 911 as they impact the lives of a couple and family, interwoven skilfully into the backgrounds of the French islands off the coast of Newfoundland and Manhattan. Beautifully written book with interesting characters and story!......more

Goodreads review by Josée Leon on May 02, 2018

4.5 stars I picked up this book at the library without knowing anything about it. After reading the first page I was convinced it would be a great read and I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint. The story takes place during 9/11, but rather than being the focus of the story, it's the catalyst that bri......more

Goodreads review by Salty on April 27, 2024

All That is Solid Turns Into Air focuses on Valerie, who's a gardener and her absent husband Gerard, who's a journalist, trotting the world to variety of war zones. September 11th comes around, which is when Valerie realizes her son Andre may be at one of the World Trade Center towers. The plot jump......more