Landslide

by Melissa Leet

Overview

Landslide is the story of Jill and her lifelong friend, Susie, who grow up in a remote mountain garden. The Garden’s realm has many rooms, each a showcase of designs by Jill’s mother. When tragedy strikes in the Garden, how does a child find the resilience to go on? Alternating between Jill’s childhood and adult life, Landslide depicts the adventure that happens when life is lived full out, regardless of consequences. As the girls come of age, mature, and find love, the Garden is a constant, reverberating through their psyches and in their hearts. Teeming with poignancy, humor, and love, Landslide is a resplendent exploration of resurgence, and the truth that even death can reveal paths as wondrous as those created by life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781943826391
Publisher:	Melissa Leet
Publication date:	01/15/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	11 - 18 Years

About the Author

Born and raised outside of San Francisco, Melissa Leet currently lives in Chicago with her husband Ken, her youngest son James, and their hound Neo. Her older children, Christopher, Dillon and William, are scattered, but they are much loved. Melissa holds a BA from Smith College, an MBA from Columbia University, and a MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Map of The Garden / x - xi

Chapter 1: Garden / 3
Chapter 2: A Plan / 12
Chapter 3: Mom / 15
Chapter 4: Business / 20
Chapter 5: Jay / 21
Chapter 6: Date / 34
Chapter 7: The News / 41
Chapter 8: Trouble / 45
Chapter 9: Rain / 56
Chapter 10: Changes / 59
Chapter 11: Charlie / 64
Chapter 12: Tide Pool Trail / 72
Chapter 13: Fruit Loops / 79
Chapter 14: Lunch / 83
Chapter 15: Garden / 87
Chapter 16: Baby / 95
Chapter 17: Business / 100
Chapter 18: Mom / 103
Chapter 19: Charlie / 106
Chapter 20: Parents / 108
Chapter 21: Fire / 119
Chapter 22: Fight / 126
Chapter 23: John Jay / 132
Chapter 24: Giovanni / 138
Chapter 25: Shadow / 145
Chapter 26: Giovanni / 150
Chapter 27: New Day / 153
Chapter 28: Hospital / 156
Chapter 29: Sad / 159
Chapter 30: Giovanni / 174  
Chapter 31: Dream / 181
Chapter 32: Charlie / 183
Chapter 33: John Jay’s Room / 188

Chapter 34: The Mountain Surprise / 194
Chapter 35: Married / 198
Chapter 36: Engaged / 201
Chapter 37: Waterfront / 204
Chapter 38: Not There / 211
Chapter 39: Wedding Shopping / 215
Chapter 40: Periods / 221
Chapter 41: Bob and Susie / 227
Chapter 42: Jay / 230
Chapter 43: Mom / 233
Chapter 44: Jay / 238
Chapter 45: Sad / 242
Chapter 46: Wedding / 245
Chapter 47: Mountain / 254
Chapter 48: Accident / 263
Chapter 49: Surprise / 266
Chapter 50: Pregnant / 274
Chapter 51: Missing Mom / 277
Chapter 52: Business / 281
Chapter 53: Sailing / 285
Chapter 54: Birthday Cake / 290
Chapter 55: Married / 296
Chapter 56: Children / 300
Chapter 57: Mom’s Room / 303
 Chapter 58: Children / 305
Chapter 59: Didn’t Know / 312
Chapter 60: At Least Try / 316
Chapter 61: Anniversary / 319
Chapter 62: Mom / 325
Chapter 63: Business / 327
Chapter 64: Technicality / 330
Chapter 65: Pregnant / 338
Chapter 66: Giovanni / 342
Chapter 67: Garden / 345
Chapter 68: Charlie / 348
Chapter 69: Jay / 355
Chapter 70: Not Ready / 358

Chapter 71: Landslide / 362
Chapter 72: Maria and Fernando / 365
Chapter 73: Father / 367
Chapter 74: Garden / 370
Chapter 75: Mother / 375
Chapter 76: Animals / 378
Chapter 77: Jay and Jake / 380
Chapter 78: Mountain / 388
Chapter 79: Skull Fire / 393
Chapter 80: Family / 395
Chapter 81: Hacking All the Seasons / 398

About the Author / 401
About the Book / 402

Editorial Reviews

“Such a magical world of love, family, loss and renewal Melissa Leet has created in Landslide! I love the deep humanity of this novel, its generosity of spirit, its faith in the self and the self’s interrelationship with others and with the invisible universe. The book’s enchantment makes one want to slip between its covers and inhabit every page.”

–Elise Paschen, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, author of The Nightlife and other works

From the Publisher

2018-01-24
A woman navigates change and growth while reckoning with memories of her youth in this debut novel.Jill at first seems to have an idyllic childhood. Her adoring, artistic mother, Rebecca, is raising her in the Garden, a sprawling homestead full of creative horticultural designs. But Jill has just turned 10 and increasingly asks questions about the frequent absence of her father, Jay, a renowned photographer often away on assignment for months at a time. The Garden remains a paradise, but Jill's struggle to decode her complicated family riddles is further challenged when her mother gives birth to a baby and tragedy strikes shortly after. Jill's best friend, Susie, supports her throughout but must struggle with her own mother's alcoholism. In interspersed chapters told parallel to this childhood tale, a grown Jill is trying to get her garden-ware business off the ground when a chance encounter with the handsome and spontaneous Charlie changes her life forever. The two feel an instant, deep connection, but their romance is complicated by personality differences and Jill's memories of her past. As Jill grows older, some happy "endings" occur—a marriage, a successful business—but time continues to bring new challenges and realizations. Some elements of Jill's life are so sentimental and picturesque that they border on the unrealistic or clichéd, yet Leet's best passages utilize this almost saccharine quality by contrasting it with real change and pain. The book's many episodes feel sometimes leisurely or overly wandering and random, and its characters likewise can read both as two-dimensional types sharing platitudes and as real individuals meditating on the nature of happiness. Charlie and Jill's early courtship, for example, feels like a sketch of a romance lacking real characterization (Jill ultimately loses her virginity to Charlie, but the reason she stops waiting is never fully explained). Yet the give-and-take of their adult marriage resonates far more effectively, mirroring the well-written, alternatingly cheery and sad dynamics among Jill, Rebecca, and Jay.A tale of a woman's childhood and adulthood employs both sweet clichés and genuine reflections on the passage of time.

Kirkus Reviews