Description:
National bestselling author Lesley Crewe's new novel explores widowhood, complicated family dynamics, and growing up at any age.
Well, Dick's dead. Now what?
Margo, his widow, is trying to dodge the tsunami of paperwork coming her way. She doesn't want to deal with the details--why do you think she was married in the first place? Dick always handled the drudgery.
Monty, Margo's ex-husband (the first one, not the dead one), is trying to support Margo--who seems to be finally entering adulthood at the tender age of sixty-two. Their daughter Julia knows Margo needs her, but between work complications, house complications, and genius-yet-useless son complications, Julia's gasping for air already. Dead Dick's ex-wife Carole and their daughter Velma consider a Margo a maneater thanks to a few long-ago indiscretions, so the funeral is a nightmare. Life in New Brunswick lately is a tornado of siblings, children, pets, marriages, health issues, and endless bureaucracies.
And at the centre of it all is Margo, living alone for the very first time, trying to endure everyone else's judgements about the woman she is when she doesn't even know herself. Maybe a cat will help. (The cat doesn't help.)
How old do you have to be to come of age?
....and has anyone seen Dick's will?
With humour and heart, national bestseller Lesley Crewe walks readers through the incredibly disruptive domino effects of the death of one unremarkable man.
Brief description:
Lesley Crewe is the Globe and Mail--bestselling author of thirteen novels, including Nosy Parker, which was named one of Indigo's Top 100 Books of 2022, The Spoon Stealer, longlisted for Canada Reads 2022, Beholden, Mary, Mary, Amazing Grace, Kin, and Relative Happiness, which was adapted into an award-winning feature film. She has also published two collections of essays, the Leacock--longlisted Are You Kidding Me?! and I Kid You Not! Lesley lives in Homeville, Nova Scotia. Visit her at lesleycrewe.com.
Review Quotes:
Recipe for a Good Life
"I fell arse over tea kettle in love with the characters in this book, and now find myself missing them on a daily basis. That's the sign of a good story!"
--Nancy Regan, bestselling author of From Showing OFF to Showing UP
"Recipe for a Good Life is Notting Hill meets Cape Breton--if Julia Roberts was a bestselling author and Hugh Grant a clandestine baker instead of a bookseller. Kitty steps out of her cosmopolitan life in Mad Men'era-Montreal to the world of South Head, Cape Breton, where telephones are still using the Party Line (catnip for the local gossip). It's a life-changing writing retreat for a woman stagnating in her work and marriage. With Crewe's signature wit and a cast of cheeky characters, lolloping dogs and heaps of food, this is a warm hug of a book. You'll wish you could go for a stroll along the beach with Walrus and the dogs or bum a cigarette from Gaynor over a literary lunch."
--Nicola Davison, award-winning author of In the Wake and Decoding Dot Grey