An advice columnist and mother searches for vanished husband in this dramatic novel by the New York Timesâbestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean.
An advice columnist for a Wisconsin 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 husbandâs surprise announcement that he needs a âsabbaticalâ from their life togetherâand devastated when he disappears, leaving Julie with no funds to raise two teenagers and a small daughter alone. But it is the discovery Julieanne suffers from a serious illness that truly crumbles her familyâs foundationâsetting her children on a dangerous, quixotic journey to locate their missing father before itâs too late.
Praise for The Breakdown Lane
âRousing 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.â âPublishers Weekly
âAn astute observer of family dynamics, Mitchard renders her characters flawlessly, endowing them with a humanity that is both accessibly grounded and astonishingly deep.â âBooklist
âA compelling mix of suspense, humor, and abiding humanity.â âBoston Globe
âA novel you will read once, then again and again.â âTulsa World