The Breakdown Lane - by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Twelve Times Blessed comes a novel of the breakdown of a family and of healing after a loss

Giving advice is what Julianne Ambrose Gillis does for a living--every Sunday she doles it out to clueless people she doesn't know, in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie seems to have no insight whatsoever. She has worked hard to keep her marriage fresh and to be a good mother, so it's a mystery when Leo, her husband of twenty years, decides to defect from their life together and their three children: Gabe, Caroline and Aury.

In his absence, Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness, which drives her children to undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo--before it's too late. But what they discover about their father is even more devastating than their mother's deteriorating health.

As the known world sinks precariously from view and leaves them all adrift, the Gillis clan must navigate their way through the trenches of love, guilt and betrayal, back to solid ground and a new definition of family.

From the Back Cover

An advice columnist for a local newspaper, Julieanne Gillis dispenses wisdom to her readers, but somehow missed the signs that something was amiss in her own home. Devoted to being a good mother and keeping her twenty-year marriage fresh and exciting, she is shocked by her husband's surprise announcement that he needs a "sabbatical" from their life together--and devastated when he disappears, leaving Julie with no funds to raise two teenagers and a small daughter alone. But it is the discovery that Julieanne suffers from a serious illness that truly crumbles her family's foundation--setting her children on a dangerous, quixotic journey to locate their missing father before it's too late.

Review Quotes

"From our petulant, prideful heroine to her sullen-yet-saintly son, each character's complexities shine..." - Washington Post

"[Mitchard] takes emotional family events and makes something fresh yet familiar about them..." - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Mitchard's work...is filled with vivid characters who live out loud, and in vibrant color." - Capital Times

"THE BREAKDOWN LANE takes the reader on a journey of love and loss, self-discovery and synergy, a satisfying story. - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"Rousing melodrama; fluid, often funny, dialogue; and the convincing portrayal of children involved in the collapse of a marriage add up to another page-turner from Mitchard." - Publishers Weekly

"I dare you to read Breakdown Lane and not adore its quirky, all-too-human cast of characters. With her ear for language and artist's eye for detail, Jackie Mitchard will take you on a journey through loss, hope, and every kind of love there is." - Julia Glass, author of Three Junes

"Mitchard dissects feelings of loyalty, betrayal and guilt with such aplomb, the book moves along like a thriller." - Life magazine

"...An intriguing study of a quintessential American family...[a] thought-provoking, introspective novel." - BookPage

"I dare you to read Breakdown Lane and not adore its quirky, all-too-human cast of characters. With her ear for language and artist's eye for detail, Jackie Mitchard will take you on a journey through loss, hope, and every kind of love there is."

"Julianne and Gabe's voices are fresh and energetic and their story is harrowing, inspiring, and plain old brave. This is Jacqueline Mitchard's best book!" - Alice Elliott Dark, author of Think if England

"Jacquelyn Mitchard is among the most wry and observant chroniclers of love at mid-life that we have." - Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Midwives and Before You Know Kindness

"Jacqueline Mitchard offers an honest, moving, passionate portrait of what happens when we fall off the track of a comfortable life--and more importantly, how we might learn to rise again, and soar. Reading just doesn't get any better than this." - Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister's Keeper and Vanishing Acts