{"product_id":"back-east-book-ellen-pall-9780578716916","title":"Back East","description":"Melanie is a songwriter in L.A. who's sick of California. She returns to New York, takes a Greenwich Village apartment, and intends to resume her career and reestablish ties with her family. Life, however, is unpredictable. A chance meeting in an elevator leads to a relationship with Lucian, a beautiful young actor whose previous and--as it turns out--continuing relationship with Martin Ivory causes confusion and pain. It's July in molten New York, and Melanie is due in Maine, at Milk Lake, where her widowed mother, a doomed arranger of other people's lives, is reluctant to preside at her son-in-law's marriage to her cook\/housekeeper. But that's the mere ticking of plot. The interest of this accomplished first novel lies in the character of Melanie, a woman whose unillusioned acceptance of how we live is delivered in an ironic, sweet-sour voice only the chastened romantic heart could muster. BACK EAST is a seamless novel about the dues everyone who loves somehow must pay.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53349661638929,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53349661737233,"sku":"NLS9780578716916","price":15.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780578716916.jpg?v=1774653072","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/back-east-book-ellen-pall-9780578716916","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}