Rescue: A Novel

by Anita Shreve Narrated by Dennis Holland

Overview

A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage.

Peter Webster pulls a young woman out of a car wreck that should have killed her. Sheila Arsenault haunts his thoughts, and despite his misgivings Peter is soon embroiled in an intense love affair -- and in Sheila's troubled world.

Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. But Rowan is veering dangerously off course, and for the first time in their quiet life together Peter fears for her future. He seeks out the only person who may be able to help Rowan, although Sheila's return is sure to unleash all the questions he has carefully been keeping at bay: Why did a mother leave her family? How did the marriage of two people so deeply in love unravel?

A story about trespass and forgiveness, secrets and the seismic force of the truth, Rescue is a masterful portrayal of a family trying to understand its fractured past and begin again.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile

Dennis Holland maintains a steady pace and distinctive subtle accents in the midst of the domestic drama and dramatic EMT rescues that fill this novel. The book opens on Vermont EMT and single father Peter Webster’s struggles with his teenage daughter Rowan’s drinking and other self-destructive behavior. The story then flashes back to an earlier time and his rescue of Sheila, a woman under the influence who has caused a car accident. Sheila’s wild spirit and Boston accent exert a pull on Peter, and the couple falls in love—and marries. Soon enough, things begin to fall apart as Sheila's alcoholism escalates, and a dramatic incident that threatens the infant Rowan’s safety brings the marriage to an end. Holland vocalizes the simplest scenarios with compassion as he deftly captures Peter’s gentle soul and Sheila’s destructive compulsions. A.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

In Shreve's smooth if unsurprising latest (after A Change in Altitude), EMT Peter Webster is drawn to a woman he rescues at the scene of a one-car drunk driving accident. Webster is well intentioned, but alcoholic Sheila, with her dangerous history, could prove beyond his efforts to save her, though the two embark on an affair that evolves into marriage and parenthood with the birth of their daughter, Rowan. Sheila's drinking, meanwhile, escalates until she causes another accident, this time with young Rowan in the car, causing Webster to send Sheila away to avoid jail time. Years later, with not a word from long-gone Sheila, Rowan is a typically turmoil-ridden high school senior--moody, her grades slipping, drinking--and her tribulations prompt Webster to reach out to Sheila to help his daughter. Webster and Sheila are more type than character--good-hearted man, damaged woman incapable of love--and the paramedic rescue scenes feel mostly like opportunities for Shreve to show off her research. Still, the story runs like a well-oiled machine and should sate the author's fans. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

"From its opening car crash, 'Rescue' is worth the ride....No one can create the beginning of a complex relationship like Shreve....Shreve gets deep inside these characters, and her insights draw us into their lives.... A story of hope and fear, of promises made and broken.... Shreve creates a little world, peoples it with believable characters, and puts them through agonizing and joyful moments without a false note or a dissonant figure of speech."—Brigitte Weeks, Washington Post

"A paramedic and the troubled young beauty he saves propel Shreve's engrossing latest...With the insistent thrum of life-and-death EMT calls as background, Shreve's vividly told tale captures the deep-seated fears of mortality and loneliness that can drive us to test the bounds of family and forgiveness."—Joanna Powell, People

"Rescue is Shreve at her best....Shreve knows love may be intense, life-changing and passionate, but it is never enough. Her characters bruise each other as much as they comfort each other...."Rescue" is full of themes Shreve loves: How a moment can change a life; loss and love; forgiveness and pain."—Mary Foster, Associated Press

"Compelling.... Fans of Anita Shreve will likely devour this new novel."—Sara Vilkomerson, Entertainment Weekly

"A thoroughly absorbing, perfectly paced domestic drama. Alternating between life-and-death scenarios Pete encounters on the job and the fraught family tension between father and daughter, Shreve pulls readers right into her story."—Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

Joanne Wilkinson - Booklist

"A thoroughly absorbing, perfectly paced domestic drama. Alternating between life-and-death scenarios Pete encounters on the job and the fraught family tension between father and daughter, Shreve pulls readers right into her story."

Sara Vilkomerson - Entertainment Weekly

"Compelling.... Fans of Anita Shreve will likely devour this new novel."

Mary Foster - Associated Press Staff

"Rescue is Shreve at her best....Shreve knows love may be intense, life-changing and passionate, but it is never enough. Her characters bruise each other as much as they comfort each other...."Rescue" is full of themes Shreve loves: How a moment can change a life; loss and love; forgiveness and pain."

Joanna Powell - People

"A paramedic and the troubled young beauty he saves propel Shreve's engrossing latest...With the insistent thrum of life-and-death EMT calls as background, Shreve's vividly told tale captures the deep-seated fears of mortality and loneliness that can drive us to test the bounds of family and forgiveness."

Brigitte Weeks - Washington Post

"From its opening car crash, 'Rescue' is worth the ride....No one can create the beginning of a complex relationship like Shreve....Shreve gets deep inside these characters, and her insights draw us into their lives.... A story of hope and fear, of promises made and broken.... Shreve creates a little world, peoples it with believable characters, and puts them through agonizing and joyful moments without a false note or a dissonant figure of speech."

Library Journal

Webster, a paramedic living with his parents in rural Vermont, meets Sheila Arsenault when he pulls her, bloodied and unconscious, out of a car wreck caused by her driving under the influence of alcohol. Her glossy brown hair draws him compulsively back, and he steadfastly ignores all warning signs as their relationship develops. Restlessness, a decidedly rocky past, and hints of alcoholism surround Sheila as their affair barrels into marriage and an unexpected pregnancy. An act of Sheila's finally causes their breakup, and Webster is left as the single father of two-year-old daughter Rowan. Years later, he must revisit decisions made during his marriage, as Rowan's teenage years begin to mirror her mother's history. Shreve, the best-selling author of The Pilot's Wife and Testimony, brings her usual balance of tension, family drama, and debatably likable characters to the mix in this story of love, duty, addiction, and loss. VERDICT For Shreve fans and all contemporary fiction lovers, this is a solid read, though not the author's most compelling or dazzling work. Excellent fodder for book clubs; there is plenty to discuss in the protagonists' motivations, decisions, and characterization. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/10.]—Julie Kane, Sweet Briar Coll. Lib., VA

DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile

Dennis Holland maintains a steady pace and distinctive subtle accents in the midst of the domestic drama and dramatic EMT rescues that fill this novel. The book opens on Vermont EMT and single father Peter Webster’s struggles with his teenage daughter Rowan’s drinking and other self-destructive behavior. The story then flashes back to an earlier time and his rescue of Sheila, a woman under the influence who has caused a car accident. Sheila’s wild spirit and Boston accent exert a pull on Peter, and the couple falls in love—and marries. Soon enough, things begin to fall apart as Sheila's alcoholism escalates, and a dramatic incident that threatens the infant Rowan’s safety brings the marriage to an end. Holland vocalizes the simplest scenarios with compassion as he deftly captures Peter’s gentle soul and Sheila’s destructive compulsions. A.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173755179
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	11/30/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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