I don’t know if I got everything right about this island where I have been only a visitor, never a resident. But I hope I captured the spirit of a place that is as resilient as it is welcoming, as unique in its specifics as it is emblematic of the best of New England.

Three years after my first visit to the island, I found myself signing books at Island Bound Bookstore and eating whoopie pies provided by a fantastic island bakery, the Cracked Mug. I call that a real island welcome. I hope that if you are a Block Island novice, the way I was, you make time for a visit someday. I’ll meet you there. I’ll even bring the whoopie pies.

Reading Group Guide

1. Anthony’s, Joy’s, and Lu’s lives get intertwined very quickly. How did the island setting help and hinder their growing relationships?
2. Do you think it was right for Leonard to reveal Anthony’s plagiarism? Do you agree that Leonard’s own books were written as a mutual partnership with Dorothy? How would you compare Anthony’s and Leonard’s moral compasses?
3. Why did Lu choose to write her blog in the voice of a dad rather than a mom? What role, if any, does this decision play in the blog’s success?
4. How do society’s expectations of women play into Lu’s and Joy’s relationships with Jeremy and Anthony, respectively? How does each character buck those expectations?
5. Before Leonard passes away, he says, “Long marriages are complicated.” Do you think this is true? How does this observation play out in the successful and failed relationships Anthony, Lu, and Joy have?
6. What are the generational divides between Leonard and Anthony? How do those divides affect their relationships with Dorothy and Joy, respectively?
7. To what degree are Joy and Anthony foils for each other?
8. How do you think Anthony, Joy, and Lu would define happiness? How would they define success?
9. Late in the novel, Maggie thinks to herself, “Grown-ups are both confusing and exhausting.” How does Maggie’s point of view add depth to the events of the novel? What effect did her conversation with Max during the storm have on your understanding of Anthony’s family?
10. Were you surprised or saddened by Leonard’s death? Do you think Anthony would have written his memoir if Leonard hadn’t died?

Read On

An Excerpt from Two Truths and a Lie

Prologue

That was the summer we all drank tequila by the gallon. Not really, of course—if that had been true we all would have ended up dead, instead of only one person. Although there was no alcohol involved. It was your garden-variety car accident, the Acura crushed against the pole on that deserted stretch of Hale Street, the driver dead on impact.

Garden variety. It happened all the time. Except that it wasn’t, and it didn’t, not in our town.

June

I: THE SQUAD

Later we would remember that we first set eyes on Sherri Griffin on Sawyer’s Beach, on the first day of the first session of surf camp. From the beginning, we weren’t sure she fit in. In fact, we weren’t even sure how she got in: surf-camp sign-ups happened in April, and she said she and her daughter had only just moved here. Somebody had to have clued her in before she moved. Or a child had dropped out, leaving a space open, and this newcomer had snapped it up. Perhaps she was savvier than she looked.