Sisters Book Club November Selection: The Woman Upstairs

Wow, it seems November is trying to sneak up on me. I’ve now got less than a week to finish the kids’ costumes.

But there’s still time to visit your local library, book store, or e-book proprietor to pick up November’s Sisters Book Club selection!

For November we’ll be reading:

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

from Goodreads:

“Nora Eldridge, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is on the verge of disappearing. Having abandoned her desire to be an artist, she has become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and tidy neighbour always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her classroom walks a new pupil, Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale. He and his parents–dashing Skandar, a half-Muslim Professor of Ethical History born in Beirut, and Sirena, an effortlessly glamorous Italian artist–have come to America for Skandar to teach at Harvard.

But one afternoon, Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies who punch, push and call him a “terrorist,” and Nora is quickly drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family. Soon she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries–until Sirena’s own ambition leads to a shattering betrayal.”

I heard an interview with Messud on NPR about this book, and I found the reading Messud did and her description of the premise compelling, so onto the book club list it went!

If you’d like to read along with my sister and me and the rest of the Sisters Book Club, leave us a note in the comments or join our Sisters Book Club group on Goodreads. My sister and I will, of course, post our review of the book here on Imperfect Happiness, but we’d love to have your input as well.