<i>“My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.”</i><br><br>From Amy Bloom, the beloved and critically acclaimed author of <i>Away,</i> comes a remarkable novel about the creation of an unconventional family—a brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny story of love, heartbreak, and luck.<br><br>Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris’s ambitions take them from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.<br> <br> With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and surprising events, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, the creation of a family, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn’s beauty parlors to London’s West End, a group of unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species.<br><br><b>Advance praise for <i>Lucky Us</i></b><br><br>“<i>Lucky Us</i> indeed—another Amy Bloom book. And, if it’s possible, even more powerful and affecting than her last novel, <i>Away</i>. This is a poignant book that manages to be funny, an unflinching portrait that manages to be tender, a tough story that manages to also have jazz and grace. Bloom is a great writer who keeps stepping into new territory, entirely unafraid. She is one of America’s unique and most gifted literary voices.”<b>—Colum McCann</b><br> <br> “<i>Lucky Us</i> is a remarkable accomplishment. One waits a long time for a novel of this scope and dimension, replete with surgically drawn characters, a mix of comedy and tragedy that borders on the miraculous, and sentences that should be in a sentence museum. Amy Bloom is a national treasure.”<b>—Michael Cunningham</b><br> <b> </b><br> <b>Praise for Amy Bloom</b><br><i><u><br></u></i> <b><i>Away</i></b><br> <b> </b><br> “Absolutely hypnotic.”<b>—<i>The Washington Post Book World</i></b><br> <br> “A master stylist.”<b>—<i>Richmond Times-Dispatch</i></b><br> <br> “Irresistible fiction.”<b>—<i>The Boston Globe</i></b><br> <br> “A literary triumph . . . Alive with incident and unforgettable characters, [<i>Away</i>] sparkles and illuminates as brilliantly as it entertains.”<b>—<i>The New York Times</i></b><br> <i><u> </u></i><br> <b><i>Where the God of Love Hangs Out</i></b><br> <b> </b><br> “Bloom joins the ranks of the unforgettable: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s eyeless time; Virginia Woolf’s impassivity in the progress of her characters’ lives.”<b>—<i>Los Angeles Times</i></b>