The Senator's Children [Paperback]

Sisters Betsy and Avery have never met, but they have both spent their lives under the scrutiny of prying cameras and tabloid journalists. Their father, David Christie, was a charismatic senator and promising presidential candidate until infidelity destroyed his campaign and his familys life. In the aftermath, Betsy grieves her broken family, while Avery struggles with growing up estranged from her infamous father yet still exposed by the national spotlight. Years later, as Davids health declines, Betsy and Avery are forced to face their complicated feelings about himand about each other. With delicacy and empathy, Nicholas Montemarano brings these sisters together in a parallel of grief and grace.Much the way Curtis Sittenfeld dug deep into the psyche of a fictionalized version of Laura Bush . . . so Montemarano has humanized the Edwards story, allowing us to look far inside at people who had seemed merely to be supporting actors in the larger drama. . . . It's hard to look so deeply into other people's lives that you really understand them, except perhaps through fiction, and that is what Montemarano has done here, with deftness and subtlety.This engrossing, brilliantly structured novel takes a familiar situationthe implosion of a presidential candidate's careerand creates a thing of heartbreaking beauty out of it. In spare and evocative prose, Montemarano brings something to his family tragedy that's become a rarity in Washingtonempathyand turns what could have been a simple story of heroes and villains, of power and disgrace, into a deeply moving story of human connection. By asking whether forgiveness can conquer blame, and whether we might even be able to treat strangers like family,When it comes to melodrama, there are three kinds of writers: those who run from it, those who run to it, and those who transform it. Nicholas Montemarano is that last, most rare, most remarkable sort of alchemist, and his new novel,?In? It's hard to look so deeply inl£6