The Good Daughters - by Joyce Maynard (Paperback)

About the Book

They were born on the same day, in the same small New Hampshire hospital--but Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson are different in nearly every way. Ruth is an artist and Dana is a scientist. They travel alternate paths and ultimately are both forced to reevaluate themselves and each other when past secrets and forgotten memories unexpectedly come to light.

Book Synopsis

"A story of choices and events so intimate I felt I was part of it. The novel is wrenching, the emotions radiant, and it will leave readers transformed"
--Luanne Rice, author of The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners

"Joyce Maynard has outdone herself in this beautifully written story you'll find hard to put down and impossible to forget."
-- Elizabeth Berg, author of The Last Time I Saw You

Bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Labor Day, Joyce Maynard now brings us The Good Daughters, a spellbinding novel about friendship, family secrets, and the strange, unexpected twists of fate that shape our lives. The story of two women born the same day in the same hospital, but raised in vastly different emotional environments, The Good Daughters is another high note in Maynard's already distinguished writing career.

From the Back Cover

They were born on the same day, in the same small New Hampshire hospital--but Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson are different in nearly every way.

Ruth is an artist, a romantic with a rich, passionate, imaginative life--the fifth daughter born to a gentle, caring farmer and his stolid wife. Raised by a pair of capricious drifters, Dana is a scientist and realist whose faith is firmly planted in the natural world. From the 1950s to the present, the lives of the "birthday sisters" parallel and oddly intersect, as each struggles to find her place in a world in which she has never truly felt she belonged. Sharing little except a birth date--and a love for Dana's wild and beautiful older brother, Ray--two virtual strangers will travel alternate paths winding through first love, first sex, marriage, parenthood, divorce, and tragic loss...until both are forced to reevaluate themselves and each other when past secrets and forgotten memories unexpectedly come to light.

Review Quotes

"A haunting and hopeful story." - Hartford Courant
"Unexpected and heartbreaking.... Arguably [Maynard's] best work yet." - Minneapolis Star Tribune on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"In addition to being a beautiful and engaging story, Maynard deftly captures Dana's struggle to come to terms with her sexuality in the midst of her family's instability. And her relationship with Clarice is one of the strongest in the novel. Highly recommended. " - AfterEllen.com on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"The Good Daughters shows Maynard's strengths once again--particularly in vivid descriptions of farm life, geographies, and relationships of all kinds. Passions and psychological changes in a character over time ring most true." - Providence Journal
"Exquisite . . . . [A] beautifully written book." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) on THE GOOD DAUGTHERS
"[Maynard] weav(es) a knotty tale of family secrets, told in the alternating voices of her likable main characters." - Entertainment Weekly on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"Absorbing." - More Magazine on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"Maynard is a clever storyteller." - Seattle Times on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"Maynard's spare prose packs a rich emotional punch...a can't put-it-down mystery." - People on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"An impressive writer...with a fine sense of time, of place, of humor." - Buffalo News on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"Maynard steps back and allows her characters to tell the story of The Good Daughters. In alternating chapters the voices of Ruth and Dana are employed to create this mesmerizing tale of secrets and self-discovery. . . [Maynard] offers a fascinating account that will stay with the reader long after the book is put down." - Wichita Falls Times Record Review on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"These gradations if kinship between lovers, parents and spouses are the everyday truths that make The Good Daughters worth reading. While all is finally revealed about what links the Planks and Dickersons, what will stay with you are the vibrant inner monologues of Ruth and Dana, words that give shape to love in all its forms." - Austin American-Statesman on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"The author's deft and delicate touch as she plumbs the depths of her characters' psyches is what will keep readers pinned to the page. It's like a conversation with friends about whose lives you crave every detail, simply because they are so dear to you. . . Maynard's simple language gorgeously interprets the book's themes. . . In Maynard's gifted hands, every sentence and step seems organic, as if she were just keenly observing these women and taking richly detailed notes on their lives." - Dallas Morning News on THE GOOD DAUGHTERS
"I am hard pressed to think of anything I've read that more honestly and eloquently expresses both the perils and the pleasures of love. Joyce Maynard has outdone herself in this beautifully written story you'll find hard to put down, and impossible to forget." - Elizabeth Berg, author of The Last Time I Saw You
" THE GOOD DAUGHTERS, weaves a story of choices and events so intimate I felt I was part of it. The novel is wrenching, the emotions radiant, and will leave readers transformed." - Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners
"The gentle rhythms of rural life, the granite landscape of New Hampshire, characters who exist so completely...Joyce Maynard draws me into the world of THE GOOD DAUGHTERS, weaves a story of choices and events so intimate I felt I was part of it. The novel is wrenching, the emotions radiant, and will leave readers transformed" - Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners
"Unique and chilling." - Detroit News