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The New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics delivers a wise, timely, big-hearted novel of unplanned isolation and newly forged community.
Where does one go, you might ask, when the world falls apart? When the immutable facts of your life—the mundane, the trivial, the take-for-granted minutiae that once filled every second of every day—suddenly disappear? Where does one go in such dire and unexpected circumstances?
I went home, of course.
MURBRIDGE COMMUNITY MESSAGE BOARD
FREE: 500 cans of corn. Accidentally ordered them online. I really hate corn. Happy to help load.
REMINDER: use your own goddamn garbage can for your own goddamn pet waste. I'm looking at you Peter Luflin.
REMINDER: monthly Select Board meeting this Friday. Agenda items: 1) sludge removal; 2) upkeep of chime tower; 3) ice rink monitor thank you gift. Questions? Contact Hildegard Hyman, HHMurbridge@gmail.com
Darcy Clipper, prodigal daughter, nearly thirty, has returned home to Murbridge, Massachusetts, after her life takes an unwelcome left turn. Murbridge, Darcy is convinced, will welcome her home and provide a safe space in which she can nurse her wounds and harbor grudges, both real and imagined.
But Murbridge, like so much else Darcy thought to be fixed and immutable, has changed. And while Darcy's first instinct might be to hole herself up in her childhood bedroom, subsisting on Chef Boy-R-Dee and canned chickpeas, it is human nature to do two things: seek out meaningful human connection and respond to anonymous internet postings. As Murbridge begins to take shape around Darcy, both online and in person, Darcy will consider the most fundamental of American questions: What can she ask of her community? And what does she owe it in return?
"Conklin delivers a winning third novel, with Darcy's smart, introspective voice at the heart of it. Her unconventional adventures (often hilarious, always interesting) drive home the importance of community and how important it is to show up and participate." —Booklist
"A bittersweet, laugh-out-loud novel...Community Board is a crafty send-up about one woman struggling to come to terms with—and rebuild—her battered self-esteem.... Darcy may seem a poor soul, but her sharp, bright, enlightened mind—and her snarky, lovably endearing narrative voice, supplemented with zany e-mails and community posts—will easily win the affection of readers rooting wholeheartedly for her reinvention." —Shelf Awareness
"Conklin has created a heartening look at a community whose people realize they're better together than alone." —Kirkus Reviews
"Sometimes we're not ready to jump. We need a little push. When Darcy Clipper — a heroine for the ages — gets a major shove, she finds herself in a brave new world of second chances, radical decisions, and transformative change. Funny, cinematic, and heartfelt, Community Board is a propulsive delight." —Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles
"I can't believe how good this book is! Tara Conklin once again dazzles with a hilarious, heartfelt, and wholly original tale. She writes about depression and grief with such a light touch, and her mesmerizing sentences immediately draw you into this quirky and fun community—one I was sad to leave behind! Read this!" —Etaf Rum, author of the New York Times bestseller A Woman Is No Man
This information about Community Board was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Mary Grace Long
Tara Conklin was born on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands and raised in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is a graduate of Yale University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and New York University School of Law. Most recently, she worked as a litigator in the New York and London offices of a corporate law firm but now devotes herself full-time to writing fiction. Prior to law school, Tara worked in a variety of jobs in a variety of locales. She dealt cards at a casino in Costa Rica, planned events at a press center in Moscow, taught English at a school in Madrid and waited tables at a hotel in Montana.
She lives with her family in Seattle. The House Girl is her first novel; The Last Romantics her second.
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