What Could Be Saved - Liese O'Halloran Schwarz

What Could Be Saved

By Liese O'Halloran Schwarz

  • Release Date: 2021-01-12
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 114 Ratings

Description

When a mysterious man claims to be her long-missing brother, a woman must confront her family’s closely guarded secrets in this “delicious hybrid of mystery, drama, and elegance” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Beatrice as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers.

Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers in a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand.

Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family broken by loss and betrayal, and “a richly imagined page-turner that delivers twists alongside thought-provoking commentary” (Kirkus Reviews).

Reviews

  • Beware

    1
    By Lareding
    This book has child sex abuse in it and child neglect. It’s ugly.
  • What could be saved

    5
    By Berhtina
    We are after all inexplicably interdependent Inconsolably Connected this is a book at once about her own internal struggles for healing and are desperate need for connection.
  • Great story!

    4
    By Renee McEvoy
    Great book- slow start.
  • A Mystery And A Family History

    5
    By Gringa Novelera
    I loved this book! It is the story of an American family living in 1960’s Thailand, whose world is shattered by the horrible disappearance of one of the children - Phillip. At the beginning of the book, more than 40 years after his disappearance, a man claiming to be the missing Phillip reappears in Bangkok. Is it him? Where has he been? Why hasn’t he come forward? The damaged family barely survived his disappearance- what will his reappearance do? The story moves back and forth between the present- when Phillip is found - and the past, when Phillip is lost. And the family is broken. The endless search for Phillip reveals there is more than enough blame to go around, but no answers as to where the boy is. It’s really a great story!
  • Ok book

    2
    By AAL56
    Good story but too philosophical.