Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel

Front Cover
Random House Publishing Group, Mar 14, 2023 - Fiction - 400 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD! From the author of Dear Edward comes a “powerfully affecting” (People) family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?

“Another tender tearjerker . . . Napolitano chronicles life’s highs and lows with aching precision.”—The Washington Post

ONE OF THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, Time, Vogue, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, New York Post, She Reads, Bookreporter


William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
 

Contents

Section 1
3
Section 2
16
Section 3
31
Section 4
44
Section 5
56
Section 6
68
Section 7
86
Section 8
103
Section 21
269
Section 22
278
Section 23
289
Section 24
293
Section 25
297
Section 26
303
Section 27
309
Section 28
316

Section 9
114
Section 10
125
Section 11
134
Section 12
145
Section 13
156
Section 14
171
Section 15
186
Section 16
206
Section 17
218
Section 18
232
Section 19
245
Section 20
257
Section 29
320
Section 30
326
Section 31
333
Section 32
336
Section 33
341
Section 34
348
Section 35
352
Section 36
356
Section 37
362
Section 38
367
Section 39
379
Copyright

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About the author (2023)

Ann Napolitano is the author of Dear Edward, which was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna selection, and is now an Apple TV+ series. She is also the author of the novels A Good Hard Look and Within Arm’s Reach. For seven years, Napolitano was the associate editor of the literary magazine One Story, and she received an MFA from New York University. She has taught fiction writing at Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and Gotham Writers Workshop.

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