The Goodbye Cousins

( 3 )

Overview

A tender, funny, effervescent novel about reconnecting cousins, family secrets, and a season of change

“Your family will find you.” It was the last thing Diotima Linzer’s mother, Roxanne, ever told her. But this was the same mother who kidnapped Di when she was eleven and fled to Europe where her broken-hearted father—and the FBI—would never find them. Now a single mom herself, Di is making a belated return to the States with her two-year-old son, Max, searching for the father ...

See more details below
Paperback
$13.68
BN.com price
(Save 8%)$15.00 List Price
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up In Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Other sellers (Paperback)
  • All (26) from $1.99   
  • New (5) from $1.99   
  • Used (21) from $1.99   
Goodbye Cousins

Available on NOOK devices and apps  
  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet
  • NOOK for iOS
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK for Windows 8
  • NOOK for PC
  • NOOK for Mac
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for Web

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

NOOK Book (eBook)
$11.99
BN.com price

More About This Book

Overview

A tender, funny, effervescent novel about reconnecting cousins, family secrets, and a season of change

“Your family will find you.” It was the last thing Diotima Linzer’s mother, Roxanne, ever told her. But this was the same mother who kidnapped Di when she was eleven and fled to Europe where her broken-hearted father—and the FBI—would never find them. Now a single mom herself, Di is making a belated return to the States with her two-year-old son, Max, searching for the father she lost. That means moving in temporarily with her cousin Alecia and Alecia’s fiancé, Ben, in a Pittsburgh apartment crowded with wedding gifts.

If that’s not already a recipe for disaster, Di soon finds herself falling for the wealthy, handsome, “nearly divorced” father who hires her as a nanny for his troubled teenage son, while her cousin Alecia, preoccupied by her promotion to television news anchor and a prenup she hasn’t mentioned to her fiancé, has to cope with the sudden reappearance of her estranged mother—who may hold the secret to Di’s parents’ past. Suddenly these two very different cousins—one searching for direction in the universe, the other desperate to stop her well-ordered life from unraveling—are about to discover that the family they thought they’d lost may have found them instead.

Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In her sophomore effort, Leffler spins another heartfelt tale about the search for love and acceptance, focusing on minor characters from her debut, The Diagnosis of Love. Di, a young woman with a two-year-old son, was kidnapped as a child by her mother and taken to England. Now, she's returned to the U.S., hoping to finally impose normalcy on her life. After moving in with her cousin Alecia, who's engaged, Di begins working as a nanny for the troubled son of wealthy (and newly single) Augustus Catalano. While staying with the Catalanos, Di also meets their handsome gardener, Dave, and soon finds herself torn by her feelings for the two men. Meanwhile, Alecia's relationship begins to break under the strain of the upcoming wedding and the quotidian pressures of work, family and finances. Struggling with similar emotional scars, the two cousins' attempts to build new families and identities is grounded in loving, complicated relationships. The characters are endearing and the plot straightforward (if sometimes clichéd), making this an excellent summer read. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780385340472
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 6/30/2009
  • Pages: 384
  • Product dimensions: 5.18 (w) x 8.22 (h) x 0.85 (d)

Meet the Author

Maggie Leffler is a family practice physician in Pittsburgh, where she lives with her husband and sons.
Read More Show Less

Read an Excerpt

The Goodbye Cousins

By Maggie Leffler

Bantam

Copyright © 2009 Maggie Leffler
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780385340472
Chapter One


The Beginning of the End of Me

I should probably back up and explain what made me compose the Seven Misconceptions in the first place, along with my Last Will and Testament. The short answer is easy enough: I wrote them down when I was afraid that my death was a heck of a lot closer than “someday,” that the time frame which constituted The Rest of My Life was less an era and more an instant. I am still not sure if this conviction came from the physical symptoms occurring at the time, or the fresh realization that both of my parents were dead and, logically, I must be next. Every time I imagined leaving my son, Max, just two years old, I began committing all that I could remember to paper. And once I started, I realized that I also had to explain what was going on with my cousin, Alecia. Not just because, outside of my mother, she knew me best, but also because, when Max and I came from England to crash at her apartment for the two months before her wedding, everything changed for her as well. “The Beginning of the End—of Me!” she has since joked.

And so, if I am going to backtrack, I may as well start one humid day, early August, when Alecia and her fiancé, Ben, picked us up at the Pittsburgh airport. After ten hours of traveling, Max was in remarkably goodspirits: high-fiving the flight attendants on the way out of the plane and, despite that he hadn’t seen them in over a year, gleefully kicking his legs in his stroller at the sight of my cousin and her mate. When Max asked, “We in Pittsburgh?” Ben staggered backward a few steps, as if blown away that my son could actually speak.

In baggage claim, after my fourth suitcase had been retrieved, Ben joked, “Jesus, are you guys moving in?” and I glanced up from my carpetbag, elbow deep, just in time to catch Alecia’s brown eyes flashing with panic that may have been mirroring my own. It seemed far too early to have to explain. Still rooting around in my oversized purse, I mumbled, “Housewarming gift’s here somewhere,” and wished I could dazzle them by producing a full-size floor lamp from the bag, à la Mary Poppins. Instead, my hands found the edge of a small box, which I offered with apology and high hopes.

“A Ken doll?” Alecia asked, after ripping off the paper rather unceremoniously.

“Outback Ken.” I did my best to make my voice sound like Crocodile Dundee’s: “He likes a bit of adventure, mate.”

I’m still not sure why Alecia acted so utterly baffled when for years—actual adult years—of our lives we’d written letters as our Barbie doll alter egos.

“For Meg to marry,” I said. “Remember?”

“If Meg isn’t a doll, she’s going to be a little disappointed in her mail order groom.” Ben laughed as he threw another suitcase onto our cart.

“Building a tower!” Max said and then clapped.

I explained to Ben how none of our Ken dolls were actually named Ken. They were Brian or Kevin or Lance or Derek. “And we could never find one good enough for Meg.” Meg, of course, belonged to Alecia.

Ben nodded solemnly. “I’m pretty sure I saw all of them in the album.”

“Oh, you kept it!” I turned to Alecia.

“Well, yeah, I kept it. But it’s not like I’ve looked at it in years. I don’t even know where my dolls went.” Alecia glanced over her shoulder as if someone might recognize her.

“Am I remembering wrong? Meg is still single, right?” I asked.

“That’s all about to change.” Ben wrapped an arm around Alecia, who glared at him. But I laughed, even if I wasn’t supposed to.

“Make tower higher?” Max asked, pointing at the suitcases.

“Oh, Boo. We’re done. This is all we brought.”

Ben glanced at Alecia, and then asked it again: “How long are you guys staying?”

“Indefinitely?” I asked and then watched as their smiles turned plastic, not unlike Outback Ken’s eternal grin. “Just until I get on my feet,” I added, never imagining just how long that would actually take.

Holly, Ben’s twin sister, happens to be a doctor and thus, often makes people rate their pain on a scale of one to ten. Even if you’re just talking about a chore you have to get done or complaining of someone being a pain in the ass, she loves to quantify it in numbers.

So, I put Ben on the spot one day and made him rate the pain of Max and I moving in. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about Alecia’s perception of things, but she had such an inflated sense of discomfort (the premarital counseling required by her church was often labeled a ten, the traffic on Route 28 a ten and a half) that I was certain we ranked well above natural childbirth. We’d been there for about a month, and yes, the timing of the question was a bit calculated, considering he’d just dipped a wooden spoon into my homemade Bolognese sauce for tasting. The way his eyes closed and his head swayed to the side could only be described as swooning. Zero, I thought. Say zero.

“Three,” Ben finally said, opening his eyes. “At any given time. But it’s tough because pain is a very fluid thing. Like, you being here right now? It’s great.”

Which meant that at other times, our presence must’ve reached at least a six, understandable, of course, in a cramped apartment such as this one, but a letdown all the same. Alecia would’ve pointed out that Max woke us up at seven o’clock on Saturday mornings, and how his Matchbox cars had tripped each one of us at least twice, and how he’d broken her favorite vase before it was even unwrapped. Still, it wouldn’t have rocked me in quite the same way. After all, Alecia and I had the history of our entire childhood, not just sharing Barbie dolls, but everything else as well. As surrogate sisters, we were supposed to find each other’s presence both completely exasperating and altogether comforting.

The disappointing part was that it was Ben calling us painful. Ben who loved my cooking, who’d called me brilliant, or at least, said that my collages were. (I’d overheard him defending me one night, when Alecia was complaining about my habit of cannibalizing magazines for the purpose of art. “Just for once, I want to pick up a People and be able to read it without half of the words and advertisements missing!” she’d snapped.) It was possible I’d developed a crush on my soon-to-be cousin—the innocent kind of crush.

That day in the kitchen, as Ben went on about how his pain was really a mere aggravation, not specific to Max or me, per se, but toward any guest who might compromise his ritual of walking around naked at night, I realized for certain that my crush on him was most certainly not of the romantic variety. I didn’t want to imagine him naked. Still, it was a confusing sort of affection.

Before sauce dripped all over the floor, I reached for the wooden spoon in his hand. “We’re going to move out soon. I promise.”

“Don’t move. I mean, go when you’re ready. But don’t worry about me. I love having Max here. It’s great practice for us. And thanks to you, I’ve gained five pounds,” Ben added, patting his new gut. “You didn’t ask me the pain of living with Alecia, which is also a very fluid thing. And I’m marrying her.”

I still didn’t ask, even if his eyes were goading me to. It seemed more than disloyal: I was suddenly worried he might change his mind about her. And just to make sure he didn’t change his mind about me, I kept cooking.

“Oh, my God, Di. This pork is amazing,” Ben said a few days later, early September, when we were sitting around the dining room table. “What did you do to it?”

“I brined it in salt water with twenty cloves of garlic.” I laughed when he groaned.

“Baby, do you see this?” Ben turned to Alecia. “You can cut it with a butter knife. Who can cut pork with a butter knife?”

“Great. We get it. The meat is juicy. Ra-ra,” Alecia said, spearing a carrot.

“Ra-ra!” Max cheered, waving his fork.

“So, Di, where’d you apply today?” Alecia asked.

The question always made me feel as if I was starring in one of those reality shows where people were constantly fired or voted off. Next Alecia would ask me to pack my bags and leave the apartment immediately.

“The Dressbarn.” I gave Max another bite of garlic pork. “But I think they want someone with retail experience.”

Alecia curled her lip. I knew she wouldn’t be happy, considering she’d begged me to apply at Banana Republic so I could get her a discount. “Is that why you’re dressed for the farm?” she asked, with a nod toward my tank top and overalls.

“I wore a skirt and blouse for the interview, if that’s what you mean.” Lucky for me, peasant tops had come back into style, and an even flimsier version of my own could actually be found at some of Alecia’s favorite stores. “And I don’t think their dresses are actually manufactured in a barn.”

“You’re never going to get a job with your hair in braids.” When I flipped my head around to show her it was just a single, she added, “One braid or two, it doesn’t matter! And when you pull your hair back, you can see your bald spot!”

It was a disconcerting fact: I seemed to be losing my hair that summer and, as of a few weeks before, had even acquired a small bald patch. I’d been falsely assuming that no one else could see it.

Continues...
Excerpted from The Goodbye Cousins by Maggie Leffler Copyright © 2009 by Maggie Leffler. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Read More Show Less

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 3 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(1)

4 Star

(1)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews

  • Posted September 2, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Disappointment

    Don't waste your time.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 17, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    A terrific straightforward relationship drama

    When Diotima "Di" Linzer's was eleven years old, her mom kidnapped her and took her to England making it almost impossible for her father to find her. Now a single mom with a two-year-old child, Di returns to the United States hoping to obtain some normality; something she feels she never had in England. In Pittsburgh, her engaged cousin Alecia and her fiancé Ben take in Di and her son into their apartment.

    Di obtains a position as a nanny to Gusty, a diabetic troubled teen whose wealthy father Augustus Catalano is divorcing his mother Mazie. On the estate, she meets the gardener, Dave after driving on his manicured lawn. To her fickle chagrin, she is attracted to her employer and her fellow employee; at the same time Alecia's relationship seems on the verge of collapse.

    The sequel to THE DIAGNOSIS OF LOVE (Ben's sister Holly's tale) is a terrific straightforward relationship drama. The two cousins have problems with commitments as each struggle in their own way with the men in their lives. With a nod to Neil Simon (and Herbert Ross), fans will enjoy the aptly titled THE GOODBYE COUSINS.

    Harriet Klausner

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 4, 2013

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)