{"title":"Ann Packer","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Ann Packer's compelling novels, exploring the complexities of family, relationships, and the human condition. Perfect for readers who enjoy insightful character-driven stories.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"songs-without-words-book-ann-packer-9780749938338","title":"Songs Without Words","description":"Liz and Sarabeth have been friends forever, childhood neighbours bound together in adolescence by a devastating event, the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just sixteen. In the decades that followed - through Liz's marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth's depressions and her volatile love affairs - their relationship has remained a source of continuity and strength, a fixed point amid the tumult of their adult lives. But when an unforeseen calamity strikes at the heart of Liz's family, all the assumptions - the deepest habits of their friendship - are revealed in a strange new light, and Liz and Sarabeth must question everything they thought they knew about each other and themselves. Ann Packer's new novel expertly explores the inequities between close friends, the unspoken roles, hidden expectations and deep resentments that can be violently exposed by a true crisis, and the endurance and limits of bonds forged in childhood.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49521046585617,"sku":"GOR003365511","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49617608900881,"sku":"GOR004425827","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0749938331.jpg?v=1751440511"},{"product_id":"songs-without-words-book-ann-packer-9780375727177","title":"Songs Without Words","description":"Liz and Sarabeth were girlhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother. In the decades that followed, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters, the women's friendship takes a devastating turn, forcing Liz and Sarabeth to question their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. From the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dive from Clausen's Pier\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSongs Without Words \u003c\/i\u003eis the gripping story of a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49527241113873,"sku":"GOR007565051","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50105866748177,"sku":"CIN0375727175G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50352145989905,"sku":"CIN0375727175A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50730909827345,"sku":"GOR007994739","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001893847313,"sku":"NIN9780375727177","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52961231307025,"sku":"CIN0375727175VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0375727175.jpg?v=1751443509"},{"product_id":"dive-from-clausen-s-pier-book-ann-packer-9780375727139","title":"The Dive From Clausen's Pier","description":"How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? These questions lie at the heart of Ann Packer's intimate and emotionally thrilling new novel, which has won its author comparisons with Jane Hamilton and Sue Miller. \u003cbr\u003eAt the age of twenty-three Carrie Bell has spent her entire life in Wisconsin, with the same best friend and the same dependable, easygoing, high school sweetheart. Now to her dismay she has begun to find this life suffocating and is considering leaving it-and Mike-behind. But when Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident, leaving seems unforgivable and yet more necessary than ever. The Dive from Clausen's Pier animates this dilemma-and Carrie's startling response to it-with the narrative assurance, exacting realism, and moral complexity we expect from the very best fiction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49541322539281,"sku":"GOR008738287","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49757911679249,"sku":"CIN0375727132G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49769397289233,"sku":"CIN0375727132A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50313526313233,"sku":"CIN0375727132VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51001929171217,"sku":"NIN9780375727139","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0375727132.jpg?v=1751292405"},{"product_id":"dive-from-clausen-s-pier-book-ann-packer-9780749933630","title":"The Dive From Clausen's Pier","description":"Carrie Bell was born and raised in Wisconsin. She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend for as long as anyone can remember. She is already quietly bored with Mike when he is horrifically injured in a diving accident at Clausen's Reservoir. Now the future that Carrie was only beginning to rebel against looks set in stone. Everyone thinks they know what Carrie will - and ought to - do. But Carrie is caught in a maze of moral dilemmas and is forced to question everything she thought she knew about herself. It is a moment of terrifying confusion, but also of mesmerising possibility.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49559966581009,"sku":"GOR003677156","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50174263296273,"sku":"GOR007689854","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50762782638353,"sku":"CIN0749933631G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0749933631.jpg?v=1751441725"},{"product_id":"children-s-crusade-book-ann-packer-9781476710464","title":"The Children's Crusade","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling, award-winning author Ann Packer, a tour de force family drama (\u003ci\u003eElle\u003c\/i\u003e) that explores the secrets and desires, the remnant wounds and saving graces of one California family, over the course of five decades.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. Struck by a vision of his future family, Bill buys the property and proposes to Penny Greenway, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life appeals to him. In less than a decade they have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife, overwhelmed and undersatisfied, chafing at the conventions confining her. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eYears later, the three oldest Blair children, adults now and still living near the family home, are disrupted by the return of the youngest, whose sudden presence sets off a struggle over the family's future. One by one, they tell their stories, which reveal Packer's great compassion for her characters, with their ancient injuries, their blundering desires. The way she tangles their perspectives perfectly, painfully captures the tumult of selves within a family (\u003ci\u003eMORE Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReviewers have praised Ann Packer's brilliant ear for character (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) and her naturalist's vigilance for detail, so that her characters seem observed rather than invented (\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e). Her talents are on dazzling display in \u003ci\u003eThe Children's Crusade\u003c\/i\u003e, an absorbing novel that celebrates family even as it catalogs its damages (\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e, Book of the Week). This is a superb storyteller \u003ci\u003e(San Francisco Chronicle), \u003c\/i\u003e Ann Packer's most deeply affecting book yet, tragic and utterly engrossing (\u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49606820954385,"sku":"GOR008058412","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50175272190225,"sku":"CIN1476710465VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50376296792337,"sku":"CIN1476710465A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50376299086097,"sku":"CIN1476710465G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52737136099601,"sku":"NIN9781476710464","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52818895175953,"sku":"GOR008322298","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53005995278609,"sku":"NLS9781476710464","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1476710465.jpg?v=1767867137"},{"product_id":"children-s-crusade-book-ann-packer-9781476710457","title":"The Children's Crusade","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49617328996625,"sku":"GOR008066439","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49959119094033,"sku":"CIN1476710457VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50060454756625,"sku":"CIN1476710457G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50385015374097,"sku":"CIN1476710457A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52772918100241,"sku":"GOR011627028","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1476710457.jpg?v=1751306049"},{"product_id":"the-children-s-crusade-cd-9781442383876","title":"The Children's Crusade","description":"From the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of The Dive From Clausen s Pier, a sweeping, masterful new novel that explores the secrets and desires, the remnant wounds and saving graces of one California family, over the course of five decades. \u003cbr\u003eBill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. Struck by a vision of the family he has yet to create, Bill buys the property on a whim. In Penny Greenway he finds a suitable wife, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life seems compelling and answerable, and they marry and have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife, at a time when women chafed at the conventions imposed on them. She finds salvation in art, but the cost is high. \u003cbr\u003eThirty years later, the three oldest Blair children, adults now and still living near the family home, are disrupted by the return of the youngest, whose sudden presence and all-too-familiar troubles force a reckoning with who they are, separately and together, and set off a struggle over the family s future. One by one, the siblings take turns telling the story Robert, a doctor like their father; Rebecca, a psychiatrist; Ryan, a schoolteacher; and James, the malcontent, the problem child, the only one who hasn t settled down their narratives interwoven with portraits of the family at crucial points in their history. \u003cbr\u003eReviewers have praised Ann Packer s brilliant ear for character (The New York Times Book Review), her naturalist s vigilance for detail, so that her characters seem observed rather than invented (The New Yorker), and the utterly lifelike quality of her book s everyday detail (The New York Times). Her talents are on dazzling display in The Children s Crusade, an extraordinary study in character, a rare and wise examination of the legacy of early life on adult children attempting to create successful families and identities of their own. This is Ann Packer s most deeply affecting book yet.\u003cp\u003eFrom the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of The Dive From Clausen s Pier, a sweeping, masterful new novel that explores the secrets and desires, the remnant wounds and saving graces of one California family, over the course of five decades. \u003cbr\u003eBill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. Struck by a vision of the family he has yet to create, Bill buys the property on a whim. In Penny Greenway he finds a suitable wife, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life seems compelling and answerable, and they marry and have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife, at a time when women chafed at the conventions imposed on them. She finds salvation in art, but the cost is high. \u003cbr\u003eThirty years later, the three oldest Blair children, adults now and still living near the family home, are disrupted by the return of the youngest, whose sudden presence and all-too-familiar troubles force a reckoning with who they are, separately and together, and set off a struggle over the family s future. One by one, the siblings take turns telling the story Robert, a doctor like their father; Rebecca, a psychiatrist; Ryan, a schoolteacher; and James, the malcontent, the problem child, the only one who hasn t settled down their narratives interwoven with portraits of the family at crucial points in their history. \u003cbr\u003eReviewers have praised Ann Packer s brilliant ear for character (The New York Times Book Review), her naturalist s vigilance for detail, so that her characters seem observed rather than invented (The New Yorker), and the utterly lifelike quality of her book s everyday detail (The New York Times). Her talents are on dazzling display in The Children s Crusade, an extraordinary study in character, a rare and wise examination of the legacy of early life on adult children attempting to create successful families and identities of their own. This is Ann Packer s most deeply affecting book yet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49786887504145,"sku":"CIN1442383879G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1442383879.jpg?v=1750891542"},{"product_id":"songs-without-words-book-ann-packer-9780739327678","title":"Songs Without Words","description":"Updates and expands Claghorn's previous book, Women Composers and Hymnists (Scarecrow, 1984). Scholars and students in women's studies, music, and history will enjoy this new ready reference source that presents succinct biographies for female composers in both secular and sacred music. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order and cover a broad spectrum of music, including classical, jazz, blues, rock, and sacred.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49801715777809,"sku":"CIN0739327674G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0739327674.jpg?v=1751295871"},{"product_id":"stitch-book-ann-packer-9781869417888","title":"Stitch","description":"This is a stunningly beautiful, comprehensive book featuring work by the best fibre and textile artists currently practising in New Zealand. Includes portraits of ten artists in their studio or workspace. It covers a wide range of textile crafts, from finely detailed lace and woven beading to flax weaving and full-scale fabric art in public places, created by around 60 artists as geographically far-flung as Kerikeri and Queenstown. Approximately 150 different objects have been photographed, and the artists are alphabetically arranged so the different artforms are scattered throughout, giving colour and flavour to the book. This book showcases the very best of what New Zealand's textile and fibre artists are doing today, and fills a gap in the market; many New Zealanders are passionate about textile and fibre art and are poorly served by current books.  STITCH: CONTEMPORARY NEW ZEALAND TEXTILE ARTISTS focuses on the objects and their makers. Each object is lovingly photographed and the book design honours these objects and gives ample space to them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49849453904145,"sku":"GOR013797804","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50011476001041,"sku":"GOR013635933","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51085927416081,"sku":"CIN1869417887VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53135206744337,"sku":"GOR014765534","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1869417887.jpg?v=1751061609"},{"product_id":"dive-from-clausen-s-pier-ann-packer-book-ann-packer-9780375412820","title":"The Dive from Clausen's Pier \/ Ann Packer.","description":"How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? These questions lie at the heart of Ann Packer's intimate and emotionally thrilling new novel, which has won its author comparisons with Jane Hamilton and Sue Miller. \u003cbr\u003eAt the age of twenty-three Carrie Bell has spent her entire life in Wisconsin, with the same best friend and the same dependable, easygoing, high school sweetheart. Now to her dismay she has begun to find this life suffocating and is considering leaving it-and Mike-behind. But when Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident, leaving seems unforgivable and yet more necessary than ever. The Dive from Clausen's Pier animates this dilemma-and Carrie's startling response to it-with the narrative assurance, exacting realism, and moral complexity we expect from the very best fiction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49976401821969,"sku":"CIN0375412824G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50761920708881,"sku":"CIN0375412824VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51430632259857,"sku":"GOR002802601","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53199394210065,"sku":"CIN0375412824A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0375412824.jpg?v=1751039097"},{"product_id":"un-amour-de-jeunesse-book-ann-packer-9782020813488","title":"Un amour de jeunesse","description":"How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? These questions lie at the heart of Ann Packer's intimate and emotionally thrilling new novel, which has won its author comparisons with Jane Hamilton and Sue Miller. \u003cbr\u003eAt the age of twenty-three Carrie Bell has spent her entire life in Wisconsin, with the same best friend and the same dependable, easygoing, high school sweetheart. Now to her dismay she has begun to find this life suffocating and is considering leaving it-and Mike-behind. But when Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident, leaving seems unforgivable and yet more necessary than ever. The Dive from Clausen's Pier animates this dilemma-and Carrie's startling response to it-with the narrative assurance, exacting realism, and moral complexity we expect from the very best fiction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50037334901009,"sku":"CIN2020813483G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/2020813483.jpg?v=1751094568"},{"product_id":"mendocino-and-other-stories-book-ann-packer-9781400031634","title":"Mendocino and Other Stories","description":"With humor, wisdom and tenderness, Ann Packer offers ten short stories about women and men--wives and husbands, sisters and brothers, daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, friends, and lovers--who discover that life's greatest surprises may be found in that which is most familiar. \u003cbr\u003eIn the title story, on the anniversary of their father's suicide a young woman discovers that her brother may have found a reason for living in the love of a good woman. In Nerves, a young man realizes that the wife he is separated from no longer loves him but that it is his own life he misses, not her. The narrator of My Mother's Yellow Dress is a gay man remembering his deceased mother and their vital and troubling intimacy. In Babies--which was included in the prestigious O. Henry anthology series --a single woman in her mid-thirties finds that everyone, including her best friend at work, is pregnant, and that their joy can only be observed, not shared. In these and six other stories, Ann Packer exhibits an unerring eye for the small ways in which people reveal themselves and for the moments in which lives may be transformed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50072820154641,"sku":"CIN140003163XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50116811227409,"sku":"CIN140003163XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50372447240465,"sku":"CIN140003163XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50805339062545,"sku":"GOR007869716","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/140003163X.jpg?v=1750825305"},{"product_id":"swim-back-to-me-book-ann-packer-9781400079735","title":"Swim Back to Me","description":"Ann Packer is one of our most talented observers of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils. In these unforgettable, emotionally searing stories, she explores the moral predicaments that define our lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50095698739473,"sku":"CIN140007973XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50374214615313,"sku":"CIN140007973XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52492476383505,"sku":"GOR009581374","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52817369661713,"sku":"CIN140007973XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53261985743121,"sku":"NLS9781400079735","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53377224966417,"sku":"NIN9781400079735","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/140007973X.jpg?v=1751208088"},{"product_id":"songs-without-words-book-ann-packer-9780375412813","title":"Songs Without Words","description":"Liz and Sarabeth were girlhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother. In the decades that followed, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters, the women's friendship takes a devastating turn, forcing Liz and Sarabeth to question their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. From the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dive from Clausen's Pier\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSongs Without Words \u003c\/i\u003eis the gripping story of a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50137919783185,"sku":"CIN0375412816G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50349569409297,"sku":"CIN0375412816A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0375412816.jpg?v=1751039096"},{"product_id":"songs-without-words-book-ann-packer-9780749908690","title":"Songs Without Words","description":"Liz and Sarabeth have been friends forever, childhood neighbours bound together in adolescence by a devastating event, the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when the girls were just sixteen. In the decades that followed - through Liz's marriage and the birth of her children, through Sarabeth's depressions and her volatile love affairs - their relationship has remained a source of continuity and strength, a fixed point amid the tumult of their adult lives. But when an unforeseen calamity strikes at the heart of Liz's family, all the assumptions - the deepest habits of their friendship - are revealed in a strange new light, and Liz and Sarabeth must question everything they thought they knew about each other and themselves. Ann Packer's new novel expertly explores the inequities between close friends, the unspoken roles, hidden expectations and deep resentments that can be violently exposed by a true crisis, and the endurance and limits of bonds forged in childhood.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50161032102161,"sku":"GOR003888624","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52477597286673,"sku":"NLS9780749908690","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0749908696.jpg?v=1750849006"},{"product_id":"dive-from-clausen-s-pier-book-ann-packer-9780749938345","title":"The Dive From Clausen's Pier","description":"Carrie Bell was born and raised in Wisconsin. She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend for as long as anyone can remember. She is already quietly bored with Mike when he is horrifically injured in a diving accident at Clausen's Reservoir. Now the future that Carrie was only beginning to rebel against looks set in stone. Everyone thinks they know what Carrie will - and ought to - do. But Carrie is caught in a maze of moral dilemmas and is forced to question everything she thought she knew about herself. It is a moment of terrifying confusion, but also of mesmerising possibility.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50241814200593,"sku":"GOR003692975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52108017565969,"sku":"GOR001390783","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52429790707985,"sku":"NLS9780749938345","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/074993834X.jpg?v=1751453389"},{"product_id":"songs-without-words-cd-9780739354681","title":"Songs Without Words","description":"Liz and Sarabeth were girlhood neighbors in the suburbs of Northern California, brought as close as sisters by the suicide of Sarabeth's mother. In the decades that followed, their relationship remained a source of continuity and strength. But when Liz's adolescent daughter enters dangerous waters, the women's friendship takes a devastating turn, forcing Liz and Sarabeth to question their most deeply held beliefs about their connection. From the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dive from Clausen's Pier\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSongs Without Words \u003c\/i\u003eis the gripping story of a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50363190575377,"sku":"CIN073935468XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/073935468X.jpg?v=1750744145"},{"product_id":"swim-back-to-me-book-ann-packer-9781400044047","title":"Swim Back to Me","description":"Ann Packer is one of our most talented observers of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils. In these unforgettable, emotionally searing stories, she explores the moral predicaments that define our lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50372760895761,"sku":"CIN1400044049G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50380204540177,"sku":"CIN1400044049A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51488179683601,"sku":"CIN1400044049VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1400044049.jpg?v=1750794256"},{"product_id":"mendocino-and-other-stories-book-ann-packer-9780749934101","title":"Mendocino And Other Stories","description":"With humour, wisdom and tenderness, Ann Packer offers ten short stories about women and men--wives and husbands, sisters and brothers, daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, friends, and lovers--who discover that life's greatest surprises may be found in that which is most familiar. In the title story, on the anniversary of their father's suicide a young woman discovers that her brother may have found a \"reason for living\" in the love of a good woman. In \"Nerves,\" a young man realizes that the wife he is separated from no longer loves him but that it is his own life he misses, not her. The narrator of \"My Mother's Yellow Dress\" is a gay man remembering his deceased mother and their vital and troubling intimacy. In \"Babies\", a single woman in her mid-thirties finds that everyone, including her best friend at work, is pregnant, and that their joy can only be observed, not shared. In these and six other stories, Ann Packer exhibits an unerring eye for the small ways in which people reveal themselves and for the moments in which lives may be transformed.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50938046087441,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50938046251281,"sku":"GOR004523814","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0749934107.jpg?v=1750817238"},{"product_id":"dive-from-clausen-s-pier-the-book-ann-packer-9780965066082","title":"Dive From Clausen's Pier, The","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51145270198545,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51145271148817,"sku":"CIN0965066088G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0965066088.jpg?v=1751397007"},{"product_id":"childrens-crusade-book-ann-packer-9780008735074","title":"The Children’s Crusade","description":"‘A tour de force family drama’             ELLE                                     ‘Bursting with poignancy’             NEW YORKER                        ‘Tender, absorbing’ CATHERINE NEWMAN             ‘First-rate storytelling’ BBC                          ‘A riveting novel about how family molds us – for good and ill – and the grace that comes with forgiveness’             PEOPLE MAGAZINE                        Bill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. It is here that he will fall in love with Penny Greenway, build a home and raise a perfect family.             Decades later, the lives of the three oldest Blair children are upended by the return of their younger brother, James – the wayward son – whose sudden presence forces to light the siblings' past rivalries and grievances, and sets off a struggle over the family's future.             From New York Times bestselling author, Ann Packer, The Children's Crusade explores the secrets, desires and heartbreaks of one Californian family over the course of five decades.                          **Some Bright Nowhere, the latest novel from Ann Packer is available now**                                     ‘This is a novel with something to teach about forgiving the people we love’             NEWSDAY                                     ‘Superb … I’ve rarely read a novel so astute about the jumble of love and respect, rivalry and envy, empathy and scorn that makes up family dynamics’             SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE                        ‘A beautiful novel that will stay with me’ ABRAHAM VERGHESE","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51595748835601,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51595748901137,"sku":"NGR9780008735074","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53147362033937,"sku":"NLS9780008735074","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008735077.jpg?v=1766656892"},{"product_id":"some-bright-nowhere-book-ann-packer-9780008735081","title":"Some Bright Nowhere","description":"AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK                        ‘One of those rare books that once you’ve finished, comes with you for life’ RACHEL JOYCE             ‘A moving book … I was enraptured by it’ PHILIPPA PERRY             ‘Readers, you will shed tears and talk long into the night about this book’ ANDREW SEAN GREER             ‘A heartbreaking novel that actually made me happy’ MEG WOLITZER                          An extraordinarily beautiful and life-affirming new novel from one of America's greatest chroniclers of the human heart, Ann Packer.                        Eliot and his wife Claire have been happily married for nearly four decades. They’ve raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and have weathered the inevitable ups and downs that come with a long marriage. Now, eight years into Claire’s cancer diagnosis it’s time to gather their loved ones and prepare for what comes next.             Through Claire’s illness, Eliot has willingly and lovingly shifted into the role of caregiver, coming to appreciate the new intimacy this creates. But as he focuses on settling into what will be their last weeks together, Claire makes an unexpected request that leaves him reeling.             Ann Packer makes a triumphant return with this beautifully powerful and life-affirming novel. Some Bright Nowhere explores the profound gifts and costs of truly loving someone, and the unexpected feelings we experience as the end of life draws near.                          ‘As devastating as it is life-affirming’              iPAPER                        ‘This beautifully written story is going to get you thinking about some things that really matter’ OPRAH WINFREY             ‘Intimate and devastating;I felt winded, while reading, and unable to look away’ CLAIRE DAVERLEY, author of Talking at Night             ‘Extraordinary. Books like this are why I love reading’ ELIN HILDERBRAND, author of The Perfect Couple             ‘I read it in awe and haven't stopped thinking about it since’ CLAIRE POWELL, author of At the Table                          ‘A moving meditation on love's many forms’              PEOPLE                                     ‘Packer’s gorgeous, deeply involving novel is a suspenseful and radiant reckoning with love, sorrow, and the everlasting mystery of death’             BOOKLIST                        ‘One of those rare books that leaves you feeling altered somehow, like the light has shifted’ HUMA QURESHI, author of Playing Games             ‘Prose beautiful enough to get you drunk … A triumph’ RUFI THORPE, author of Margo's Got Money Troubles             ‘I read it feverishly; I lived and mourned with its characters’ AYŞEGÜL SAVAŞ, author of The Anthropologists             ‘Exquisite … you've never read a novel about marriage quite like this one’ TANIA JAMES, author of Loot","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51595749064977,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51595749523729,"sku":"NGR9780008735081","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53122818244881,"sku":"NLS9780008735081","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53155369812241,"sku":"GOR014785208","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53202837078289,"sku":"GOR014805391","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53340432400657,"sku":"GOR014860794","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008735085.jpg?v=1767351715"},{"product_id":"some-bright-nowhere-book-ann-packer-9780063421493","title":"Some Bright Nowhere","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52600279105809,"sku":"NIN9780063421493","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52867017015569,"sku":"CIN0063421496G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52973070450961,"sku":"CIN0063421496VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780063421493.jpg?v=1769078553"},{"product_id":"some-bright-nowhere-book-ann-packer-9780063474314","title":"Some Bright Nowhere","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52602484392209,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52602484490513,"sku":"NIN9780063474314","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780063474314.jpg?v=1772792477"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-ann-packer.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}