There But For Grace

Overview

Fifty-three-year-old Grace Winthrop Hobbes is newly divorced with two college-age kids, an eccentric octogenarian mother, a stalled novel-in-progress, and a sex drive that is coming out of hibernation with a vengeance. Refusing to go gently into the dark night of abstinence and retreat, and tired of sexual double standards, Grace makes a vow to seize life's bull by the horns. Her adventures begin with Fuzz, who likes to take notes after sex; with Dylan, a soulful computer genius in search of an "era"; Otis, a one-armed jogger raising a seven-year-old daughter with OCD; and a banker in Vermont who offers a new twist. However, Grace's year of re-liberation doesnt go quite as planned. As her empty house slowly fills with quirky, unexpected “guests,” she gains new insights into friendship, intimacy, happiness, and the notion of home. There but for Grace is a funny, earnest look at the modern “family,” nuclear and extended — sometimes way overextended.

Author Biography

Anne Whitney Pierce is a lifelong Cantabrigian and the award-winning author of Galaxy Girls: Wonder Women, Rain Line, Down to the River, and There but for Grace. “Demonstrating a keen ear for unpretentious voices, Pierce … spins richly populated yarns of divorce, abandonment, birth, and love.”—New York Times Book Review. The mother of three grown daughters, she taught writing to graduate students at Emerson College and to students in the Cambridge Public Schools.