Clock Dance

NATIONAL BEST SELLER • TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR
USA TODAY
 • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: O Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Times (London)

A charming new novel of self-discovery and second chances from the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Spool of Blue Thread.

Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother's sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother but isn't sure she ever will be. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to look after a young woman she's never met, her nine-year-old daughter, and their dog, Airplane. This impulsive decision will lead Willa into uncharted territory--surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope and transformation,
Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers.

"Anne Tyler is one of this country's great artists . . . She has lost none of the inspired grace of her prose, nor her sad, frank humor, nor her limitless sympathy for women who ask for little and get less . . . Beautiful, understated, humane." -USA Today

"Tyler writes with enormous warmth about all her characters." -Baltimore Sun

"Tyler's stirring story celebrates the joys of self-discovery and the essential truth that family is ours to define." -People

"Anne Tyler is the most dependably rewarding novelist now at work in our country." -Wall Street Journal

"A psychologically astute study of an intelligent, curious woman . . . A triumph." -Boston Globe

"Feels as comforting as coming home." -Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Clock Dance pulls you right in and keeps on ticking . . . Tyler's novels reassure us that the possibilities for meaningful connection-which so often seem lost in our hectic world-are still out there." -Newsday

"A gorgeous gem of a novel about family and second chances." -Bustle

"What's so amazing about Tyler's novels is the way she makes ordinary people and ordinary things so fascinating . . . In Tyler's hands, life's mundane activities feel vital . . . Revelatory . . . Unwrapping the story is a delight." -Chicago Tribune

"Full of wisdom about relationships, delivered in gorgeous language and with considerable charm." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Delightfully zany . . . Charming . . . Tender." -Washington Post

"She is one of our greatest living fiction writers and if I were in charge, she'd have a Nobel by now." -The Observer (UK)

"Clock Dance is Anne Tyler at her best . . . An entertaining, heartwarming story about second chances and the real meaning of family . . . Full of the sorts of eccentric yet totally believable characters that Anne Tyler is a genius at creating . . . Captivating . . . A delight." -Greensboro News & Record (NC)

"If you want to understand the everyday life of Americans, read Anne Tyler . . . There is no one better at taking the ordinary person-the one we don't even notice in the supermarket queue-and showing us what lies beneath . . . Clock Dance is a marvelous frog-leap of a book . . . Sequel please!" -The Times (UK)

"A joy to read . . . These characters come to life off the page." -Baltimore Magazine

"Anne Tyler's Baltimore has become a sort of urban Yoknapatawpha." -Charles McGrath, New York Times

"If Anne Tyler isn't the best writer in the world, who is?" -Jane Garvey, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4

"Tenderly devastating . . . Affecting . . . A quiet but sharply feminist statement." -Entertainment Weekly

"Anne Tyler is one of America's very best living novelists and one of the world's most loved . . . Her stories about family life-beautifully written, forensically insightful, sometimes laugh out loud funny-are cherished by all ages . . . She sheds light on the secret bits of yourself, the parts no one knows about, and her skill is writing compassionately about our so-called ordinary lives with an apparent effortlessness that conceals great art." -The Times Magazine (UK)

"In Tyler's effortless, uncluttered prose, the novel beautifully explores an older woman's search for meaning and agency in her life."-Christian Science Monitor

"Clock Dance, rife with the hurts and joys of living, is far more than merely very good . . . For readers Anne Tyler is a life force; for writers she is simply the best." -Irish Times

"A smart, touching exploration of altruism and the nature of a meaningful life."-Daily Mail (UK)

"Stellar . . . A bittersweet, hope-filled look at two quirky families that have broken apart and are trying to find their way back to one another." -Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed)

"Brilliant, charming, and book-club-ready . . . Tyler's bedazzling yet fathoms-deep feel-good novel is wrought with nimble humor, intricate understanding of emotions and family, place and community-and bounteous pleasure in quirkiness, discovery, an