Melanie Gideon – författare

If you like Modern Family, you’ll love thisA successful marriage is like growing a temperamental plant – you have to work hard and tend to it carefully, as Alice Buckle is just discovering.Despite her husband, two children and straight-talking best friend, Alice suddenly feels lost. Is it just that she’s turning the age her mother was when she lost her? Or is it that she and her husband seem to have run out of things to say to each other?Help comes in an unexpected form. When Alice starts unburdening herself to a complete stranger online, she starts to see things in a new light. Freed by the anonymity – she is known only as Wife 22 – she suddenly remembers all the reasons she fell in love with her husband in the first place.But in the course of baring all, is Alice risking losing everything she once held so dear?

An utterly original, thoughtful and deeply compelling novel for readers who loved ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’.In the heart of the Sonoma Valley, on the edge of a sun-drenched meadow, lies the idyllic community of Greengage – where the residents wear simple clothes, lead quiet lives and whose manners could almost seem to be of another time.Into this world stumbles single mother Lux Lysander, trying to lose herself in the peaceful beauty of the Californian countryside while her young son visits his grandparents. It’s a world far away from the unpaid bills piling up and the overwhelming sense of struggle to make ends meet.Soon, Lux finds herself drawn into the lives of the people of Greengage, discovering not only the secret at the heart of their community but also a sense of belonging she didn’t know she was looking for. Torn between this life and her own with her son back in San Francisco, can Lux turn her back on the only place that has ever truly felt like home?‘Lovingly handcrafted, delectable and transcendent’—San Francisco Chronicle‘Beautifully written . . . a wonderful story about belonging, love and the aching certainty that there’s something more out there. . . . Sure to appeal to fans of Time and Again or The Time Traveler’s Wife’ Shelf Awareness (starred review)‘Captivating’ Booklist

When her husband buys a jacked-up truck complete with cattle guard, Melanie Gideon - wife, mother and dog owner - knows her life is about to change. He dreams of taking road trips in it, but Melanie can't muster up any enthusiasm. Instead, the roar of its diesel engine seems to rip through her suburban existence. Dazed, confused and no longer able to recognise herself, she wonders: is this all there is? THE SLIPPERY YEAR is a poignant and funny insight into a year in Melanie's life as she tries to come to terms with her 'happily ever after'. In her quest to reignite passion, beauty and mystery in her life, Melanie reflects on her receding youth and impending midlife, only to discover the sweetness of ordinary pleasures that were there all along ...