In Common - by Norma Watkins (Paperback)

About the Book

Charles Bukowski once said, "...find what you love and let it kill you." This is the story of sacrifices women make for the love of an inaccessible man.

Book Synopsis

In Common, a first novel from award-winning memoirist Norma Watkins (The Last Resort, That Woman from Mississippi), is the story of how much women willingly sacrifice for love.

Lillian Creekmore grows up at her family's popular rural spa. She successfully runs an entire hotel, yet longs for a husband. Then she meets Will Hughes.

Velma Vernon accepts life on a small, struggling farm until a boy she barely tolerates proposes marriage. To accept means duplicating her parents' hard life. Alone, she leaves for the city and triumphs, not as a wife, but by being the best at her job. Velma is content until the most beautiful man she has ever seen walks into her office.

This moving and darkly humorous novel follows the intertwined lives of women willing to surrender everything to a man.

Review Quotes

"I've always loved books about the boundaries the world puts around women, and how they must either adapt to them or force some change in their immediate surroundings." -San Francisco Book Review

"...the great American novel, only this time it's from a woman's point of view, and this time it's set in the South. A significant literary achievement." -Michael Hettich, The Mica Mine; To Start an Orchard

"In a beautifully-written literary fiction novel set throughout the mid-1900's, Watkins takes the reader on an emotional journey through the lives of two women who sacrifice everything for love." -Sublime Book Review