From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a beautifully tender, heartbreaking, and moving story of four sisters over three decades

 

Meet the Padvano girls. Best friends and sisters, they are thought of as inseparable by everyone in their close-knit Chicago neighbourhood. Julia, the eldest, is the "rocket" of the family - she always has a destination in mind and clear plans for how to get there. Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a life for herself other than the expected path of wife and mother. Cecelia and Emmeline, the twins, are the artist and the caregiver. From childhood, the four sisters complete each other, expecting that their family will always be intact.

 

When Julia falls in love with William Walters, a history student and college sports star, she's delighted by the way her plans for adulthood are coming together. A husband, a house, a family. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who steps in to help. Suddenly, things shift. Dynamics and relationships, priorities and secrets - everything that was once a given no longer is.

 

Rich and vivid, heartbreaking and heart-mending, Hello Beautiful captures the joy, tragedy, trust, and betrayal to ask: what does it mean to be a family? And once shattered, can it be pieced back together?

 

Wonderful... a beautifully written coming-of-age story. - Nina Stibbe

 

Powerful. - New York Times

 

Ann Napolitano's writing is astonishing. I'm in awe. - Marian Keyes

 

Moving and emotional. - Anne Tyler

 

That rare book that breaks your heart and stitches it back together. - Jodi Picoult

 

Stunning, life-affirming. - Vogue

 

Made me think, nod in recognition, care about its characters, and cry, and you can't ask more of a novel than that. - Emma Donoghue