Libby woke up that morning and knew it was time to leave . . . Libby Harper, unsatisfied with her suburban life, abandons Massachusetts, her two teenage children, and Tom, her husband of eighteen years. Depressed and feeling trapped, she is determined to realize her fantasies of Hollywood fame before it is too late. Dana has been expecting her mother to walk out for years. Her older brother, Troy, who is always in trouble, has been struggling to get his mother's attention for most of his life. But it is Tom, their father, who is hit the hardest. Once, he and Libby were the most beautiful couple in town. Rudderless without the woman he has loved since ninth grade, he is a man drowning when Renata Handy enters their lives. Renata has left Manhattan behind to return home with her terminally ill eight-year-old daughter. She finds an unexpected haven with Tom Harper, her high-school crush-and his shattered family. A Literary Guild selection, Places to Stay the Night is a story of the dreams we leave behind . . . and the ways we can find ourselves again.
"[Hood] turns the ordinary into something that sparkles, makes these ordinary lives extraordinary by making them so much like ours . . . We are reminded that life is crazy for a reason-and that those who learn from tragedy are the only true survivors."
The Boston Globe
"Moving . . . absorbing."
The Washington Post
"Ann Hood's big book, her 'breakthrough.' Powerful, heartfelt. With Hood's characteristic grace and compassionate insight, this sparkling novel reinforces her reputation as one of the best young writers in the world of contemporary fiction."
