Babyville

Overview

On the heels of her three runaway hits, Bookends, Mr. Maybe, and Jemima J, Jane Green delivers a sparkling, sexy tale about the complexities of modern motherly love. Bestselling author Jane Green has won the hearts of thousands of readers with her fresh take on single life and the dating jungle. Now in Babyville, she applies her golden touch to the next phase of a girl's life, in an irresistible new novel about two young women coping with the chimes of their biological clocks, and one independent glamour-girl who tries to tune hers out. Meet Julia, a wildly successful television producer who appears to have the picture-perfect life. But beneath the surface, things are not as perfect as they seem. Stuck in a loveless relationship with her boyfriend, Mark, Julia thinks a baby is the answer . . . but she may want a baby more than she wants her boyfriend. Will a trip to New York City with a jet-setting friend-and all the glittering energy and eligible men the city brings-help her discover what she really needs Maeve, on the other hand, is allergic to commitment.

Editorial Reviews

Green chronicled the London singles scene with wit and verve in Bookends and Mr. Maybe. Moving on from 20-somethings to 30-somethings, her airily absorbing new novel tracks the dilemmas of highly motivated career women faced with the dreaded baby decision. Julia, a 33-year-old TV producer, has lived with boyfriend Mark for four years, but feels that the relationship has gone stale. She decides they need a baby and becomes obsessed with getting pregnant. She tries all the pregnancy-producing tips she hears: legs in the air for five minutes after coitus, creative visualization, a fertility incantation complete with dancing around a burning candle. All to no avail. Her friend Bella visits from New York, where she is a happily single party animal, and she persuades Julia that a vacation might help. While Julia is in New York, ambitious Maeve is hired to replace her at the TV studio. She's determined to make the big time, adept enough at office politics to sleep with a power figure and definitely averse to emotional attachment. Kids are not on the agenda, but after a one-night stand she winds up pregnant-and the father is Julia's supposedly infertile boyfriend, Mark. Meanwhile, Julia's friend Sam has recently become the mother of baby George, but finds that "nothing had prepared her for the loneliness and the boredom" of having an infant. Sam suffers the familiar postpartum depression symptoms until she falls in love with the husband of a new close friend. There's enough suspense and humor to make up for some cliched characters, and Green keeps the dialogue snappy and the pace fast. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Jane Green

Jane Green was a disaster at University, discovered writing soon afterwards, and went on to work as a journalist throughout her twenties, for various national newspapers and magazines in her home town of London. At twenty seven, inspired by Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, she decided to give up her job on the Daily Express, and write a real woman's account of what it was like being single in the city. Luckily it paid off. Three months later she signed her first publishing deal, and Straight Talking, her largely-autobiographical first novel, became a huge bestseller and together with Bridget Jones's Diary launched the phenomenon that came to be known as 'chick lit'. Just after the release of Straight Talking, Jane met her American husband, and two years after that they moved across the Atlantic to Connecticut. Four years and four children later , Jane is currently at work on her eighth novel, preparing to go off on tour around the States for the hardback launch of The Other Woman (March 8th), getting the house ready for Bingo, a lurcher (greyhound cross) who's arriving from Florida in two weeks who will hopefully befriend Palmer, the house dog, looking after four children under the age of five, attempting to clean up the garden before Spring, and thinking of what she can possibly do with chicken breasts for supper tonight again.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Random House

Filesize

421.10 KB

Number of Pages

464

eBook ISBN

9780767912259