Description
Description
From the beloved New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel, an exuberant and timely new novel
At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn't choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas--that would be her three grown children--but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it's cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She's pregnant. As word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, belly-rubbers and rubber-neckers all descending on Vista View while Pepper struggles to determine her next move. Soon she has some hard decisions to make--and some she's not allowed to make. Enormous Wings is an urgent novel about female agency and bodily autonomy, morality and mortality. It's about what happens when you don't get to choose anymore. It's about motherhood and family, sex and love and friendship, and how those bedrocks--even so late in the day--can still change, and then change everything.
About the Author
About the Author
Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of the novels Family Family, One Two Three, Goodbye for Now, The Atlas of Love, and the Reese's Book Club Pick This Is How It Always Is. Frankel lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and border collie.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Praise for Enormous Wings
"In the hands of a lesser writer, this story would flounder, but Frankel's deft understanding of nuance makes each argument, interaction, and forced conversation between the characters into an epiphany for modern readers to ponder and appreciate. VERDICT: An unusual premise, supported by great writing, makes this novel work."
--Library Journal
--Publishers Weekly "Enormous Wings is a brilliant, hilarious, dynamic, and all-consuming story of freedom, choice, aging, and the lengths we will go to for ourselves and our families. Laurie Frankel has written a masterpiece of humanity with just the right dash of weirdness. This is the ultimate interrogation of abortion access in a red state set in the most unexpected place: a senior living community. I am obsessed, moved, and utterly awed."
--Leila Mottley, New York Times bestselling author of Nightcrawling and The Girls Who Grew Big
"Laurie Frankel is such a funny, smart writer, and I fell in love with 77-year-old Pepper Mills, our charming and resilient main character. A delicious novel of second chances that will warm you from your heart all the way down to your feet."
--Annie Hartnett, nationally bestselling author of The Road to Tender Hearts "Laurie Frankel is one of the best novelists working today. Her new novel, Enormous Wings, is a funny and humane testament to the miracle of love, family, and being alive in the world."
--Lauren Grodstein, author of A Dog in Georgia and We Must Not Think of Ourselves
"Enormous Wings is miraculous--and enormous--in more ways than one. It's a novel of profound strength and compassion and levity and power, extraordinary in its premise, its storytelling, and its willingness to stand for something. The rare novel that is unabashedly political, gloriously entertaining, and deeply humane. A vital novel for our time."
--Nina LaCour, nationally bestselling author of Yerba Buena and Meet Me in the Garden Praise for Laurie Frankel "Frankel is a first-rate storyteller; her prose style is witty, thoughtful, and warm."
--The Seattle Times "Frankel is brilliant at addressing social issues...with witty writing; serious messages are slipped within the pervasive humor."
--The Denver Post "The full and simple pleasures of Frankel's luscious prose lull the reader into rooting for...these plucky heroines."
--The New York Times
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Henry Holt & Company
Pub date:
2026-05-05
Length:
304 pages
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