One Two Three: A Novel

Laurie Frankel

Jun 2021 · Sold by Henry Holt and Company

About this ebook

From Laurie Frankel, the New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is, a Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick, comes One Two Three, a timely, topical novel about love and family that will make you laugh and cry...and laugh again.

In a town where nothing ever changes, suddenly everything does...

Everyone knows everyone in the tiny town of Bourne, but the Mitchell triplets are especially beloved. Mirabel is the smartest person anyone knows, and no one doubts it just because she can’t speak. Monday is the town’s purveyor of books now that the library’s closed—tell her the book you think you want, and she’ll pull the one you actually do from the microwave or her sock drawer. Mab’s job is hardest of all: get good grades, get into college, get out of Bourne.

For a few weeks seventeen years ago, Bourne was national news when its water turned green. The girls have come of age watching their mother’s endless fight for justice. But just when it seems life might go on the same forever, the first moving truck anyone’s seen in years pulls up and unloads new residents and old secrets. Soon, the Mitchell sisters are taking on a system stacked against them and uncovering mysteries buried longer than they’ve been alive. Because it's hard to let go of the past when the past won't let go of you.

Three unforgettable narrators join together here to tell a spellbinding story with wit, wonder, and deep affection. As she did in This Is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel has written a laugh-out-loud-on-one-page-grab-a-tissue-the-next novel, as only she can, about how expanding our notions of normal makes the world a better place for everyone and how when days are darkest, it’s our daughters who will save us all.

Ratings and reviews

ONE TWO THREE by Laurie Frankel 5 Stars Three Amazing Girls Mab, Monday, and Mirabel Mitchell are triplet sisters who live with their widowed mom, Nora in the sad town of Bourne. Bourne used to be a lovely small town, but it was taken over and ruined by the Belsum chemical corporation, who turned the town's river bright green and left. Unfortunately for the residents, the birth defects, cancers, and deaths do not bring much hope for the future. The triplet's mom has been crusading for two decades to bring the chemical corporation down and institute fair compensation for everyone who lives in their damaged town, she has an ongoing lawsuit against Belsun and has a lawyer who works diligently to make the corporation pay. There is never enough proof, though. The sisters call themselves One (Mab, born first and the most normal of the three); Two (Monday, born second, she loves yellow except when it's raining then she loves green, she appears to be medium functioning autistic); and Three (Mirabel born last, she was brain damaged in utero, has brain lesions, but is the most intelligent of the three, a genius). As you read the book, it starts out the chapters, One, Two, Three, then the next chapter is One, then Two, then Three. The story is told through the eyes of the triplets, a chapter for each girl, all of the way through. At school, classes are segregated by body/brain type of configuration: Class A, your body and brain are mostly normal, Mab. Class B, your body works, but your brain mostly does not, Monday. Class C, your body doesn't work, but your brain does work, Mirable. The sad part is, that there are full classes for all three designations. Everyone has been affected by the pollution in their water. Nora's husband and the girl's father died, before they were born, the girls suffered birth defects, other people in the town have lost body parts that have gotten cancers in them. This is a fictitious book about how little people can fight back against a corporation. Because the Belsum company comes back and wants to pollute them all over again. Different parts of the book remind you of the movie ERIN BROCKOVICH, 2000, (non-fiction) as Erin successfully went after the energy giant PG&E and won, for the little people. This story isn't exactly the same, but it is enjoyable. It pulls at the heartstrings, for the suffering of the weakened residents of Bourne. Many thanks to #henryholtandcompany @henryholt for the complimentary copy of #onetwothree I was under no obligation to post a review. It has nestled itself right onto my #favorites' shelf.

About the author

Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of The Atlas of Love, Goodbye for Now, and the Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick This Is How It Always Is. Frankel lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and border collie. She makes good soup.