Any Bitter Thing

Monica Wood

Jul 2010 · Chronicle Books

About this ebook

Richard Russo has celebrated Monica Wood's fiction as "thoroughly captivating warm and wise and beautifully written," and Andre Dubus III praised it as "luminous and graceful—entertaining yet transcendent." Any Bitter Thing, Wood's brilliant new novel, is her breakout book, a timely, gripping, and compassionate tale of family, faith, and deeply hidden truths. One of its greatest strengths is its continuous ability to defy expectations. It's not what you think. It is worse. Lizzy Mitchell was raised from the age of two by her uncle, a Catholic priest. When she was nine, he was falsely accused of improprieties with her and dismissed from his church, and she was sent away to boarding school. Now thirty years old and in a failing marriage, she is nearly killed in a traffic accident. What she discovers when she sets out to find the truths surrounding the accidentand about the accusations that led to her uncle's deathdoes more than change her life. With deft insight into the snares of the human heart, Monica Wood has written an intimate and emotionally expansive novel full of understanding and hope.

Ratings and reviews

This is, for me, a feel good book. Not sappy feel good but the gratitude Ive felt after getting through times of fear, grief or numbness. Very worth a read. 4.5 stars.

Real life: painful, beautiful, unfair and redeemed. Great read.

I felt good after reading this book. Like get busy living good.

About the author

Monica Wood is also the author of Ernie's Ark, a collection of stories, and My Only Story, a novel. Her fiction, book reviews, and articles appear in numerous magazines and literary journals. She was born and still lives in Maine, which is also where her fiction takes place.