Cover of The Rest of Her Life

The Rest of Her Life

In The Rest of Her Life, Laura Moriarty delivers a luminous, compassionate, and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another.Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained for reasons Leigh does not fully understand when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy — the effects of which not only divide Leigh's family, but polarize the entire community. We see the story from Leigh's perspective, as she grapples with the hard reality of what her daughter has done and the devastating consequences her actions have on the family of another teenage girl in town, all while struggling to protect Kara in the face of rising public outcry.

Like the best works of Jane Hamilton, Jodi Picoult, and Alice Sebold, Laura Moriarty's The Rest of Her Life is a novel of complex moral dilemma, filled with nuanced characters and a page-turning plot that makes readers ask themselves, "What would I do"

Genre
women’s fictionliterary fictioncoming of age
Themes
familymothersrelationshipsparentingteenagers
Setting
2000s
Mood
emotional
Audience
adultyoung adult
Length
medium · 320 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Rest of Her Life? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Rest of Her Life. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Daughter's Keeper Shares fiction, chick lit, contemporary fiction
  2. So Happy Together Shares fiction, chick lit, contemporary fiction
  3. The Mermaid Chair Shares fiction, chick lit, contemporary fiction
  4. Errands Shares fiction, contemporary fiction, adult fiction

“People who read The Rest of Her Life tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Family History
  2. Bed & Breakfast
  3. All the Numbers
  4. His Other Wife

“If you want more of the same (women’s fiction about family), start with these.”

  1. The Life You Longed For
  2. Widow, Virgin, Whore
  3. Change of Heart
  4. Mrs. Kimble

“If it was the chick lit that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter
  2. Pictures of You
  3. Object Lessons
  4. Still Life with Bread Crumbs

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Bone by Bone
  2. Tease
  3. Lean on Me
  4. Border Child