As a young congressional intern, Aviva Grossman falls for Aaron Levin, a married Congressman. Their affair eventually comes to light, permanently scarring her reputation while he gets off pretty much scot-free (of course). She moves to Maine, renames herself, chooses a new career, and gets on with her life. This is an incredibly human novel about family, community, and the often-overlooked fact that real life doesn't actually end with the worst possible thing happening.

I LOVED the first two sections of this novel, which are told by Aviva's mother Rachel and Jane Young, Aviva's grown-up, reinvented self. Their voices are unique, relatable, and laugh-out-loud funny. I enjoyed the rest of the book, although I sort of wished we could have stuck with the first two narrators. I love Ruby as a character, but I'm not sure how I feel about her as a narrator. Zevin writes from the perspective of a child remarkably well, but it was difficult to go from such mature voices to such an immature one. I liked the Embeth chapter fine, and I think humanizing her was important, but it just wasn't my favorite. And while I understand the decision to end the book with a full recap of Aviva's whole life, and the choose-your-own-adventure style is interesting, I did feel like it made the book repetitive in an unnecessary way. Overall, this novel is remarkably strong, captivating, and well-written, but as soon as I was distanced from Rachel and Jane I just wanted them back!!!!