Wild Plums

In Patricia Bidar’s Wild Plums, the narrator moves with her much-older love to a small collge town where she’s determined, once and for all, to forge a “new and adult existence [that] will bear no likeness to my life over the past few years,” something more easily said than done. Each new turn, each new plot point poses a new challenge to her long-held assumptions about women and women’s roles, ultimately leading a revelation that will no doubt shake up her “messy nothing of a life.” I loved spending time with these beautifully drawn characters, especailly the women. If I could, I’d invite them over for brunch.

—Sarah Freligh, author of A Brief Natural History of Women