Title: Little Pieces of Me
Author: Alison Hammer
Published: April 2021, William Morrow Paperbacks
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Source: Publisher via GetRedPR
Summary:
Following her acclaimed debut novel, You and Me and Us, Alison Hammer offers a deeply moving story of family and identity. When a DNA test reveals a long-buried secret, a woman must look to the past to understand her mother and herself.When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother’s past and her own feelings of being the odd child out growing up, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Could this be why Paige never felt like she fit in her family, and why her mother always seemed to keep her at an arm’s length? And what does it mean for Paige’s memories of her father, a man she idolized and whose death she is still grieving? Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige’s mom, is a straightlaced sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her sweet but boring boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life, and is tired of playing it safe. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost.
When Paige can’t get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night. The more she learns about what happened, the more she sees her unflappable, distant mother as a real person faced with an impossible choice. But will it be enough to mend their broken relationship?
Told in dual timelines, Little Pieces of Me examines identity and how the way we define ourselves changes (or not) through our life experiences.
My thoughts: This is the first book I’ve read by Alison Hammer but it definitely won’t be the last. It was such a captivating story that kept me engaged from start to finish.
This is the type of book that takes you on quite the emotional rollercoaster. It is filled with such lighthearted scenes one moment, only to have you tearing up at a poignant one the next. And crafting the story as it is, using the dual narrative and multiple points of view, it slowly builds in such a way that you become totally immersed in all the characters’ lives.
I loved how the book moved back and forth from the present to the past because it allowed us as the reader to slowly put the pieces together. In the present, we have Paige’s point of view and we see how she is handling this startling piece of news. In the past, we have both Betsy and Andy’s points of view. I loved getting to know these characters and seeing just how complex they are all, especially Betsy and Andy. Very slowly, bits of the puzzle start of come together and we learn why things happened the way they did. Secrets are revealed and it allows us to understand the characters’ actions.
This book really grabbed my heart and left a mark. It’s one of those books that you can’t stop thinking about long after you finish reading the last page. It’s a story that takes on the meaning of family, while also looking at complicated relationships and the impact of long-buried secrets. It would make such a great bookclub pick as there is so much to unpack and discuss. I still need to read Alison Hammer’s debut novel, You and Me and Us, which I plan to do soon, and I will certainly be keeping an eye out for whatever else this talented author writes in the future!
