Jane Hamilton has written some of my favorite books of the last 30 years, including the Oprah’s Book Club picks THE BOOK OF RUTH and A MAP OF THE WORLD. Her poignant, funny characters and the private and public trajectories of their lives never fail to be reader-friendly, striking us with ideas and consequences that stay in our heads and hearts long after the last word is uttered.

In THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS, 17-year-old Phoebe is being forced prior to her high school graduation to get in touch with and spend time with her birth family. Her adoptive mother, Greta --- a free spirit who has been true blue to Phoebe from infanthood --- feels that it would be a positive growing experience for her, especially in order to get to know her sisters from that unknown part of her life.

"[Hamilton] puts her elegant and thoughtful prose to excellent use here, making THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS one of the best books I have read this year."

When they all meet, Phoebe realizes that she wants nothing to do with them. With the help of her valiant and caring friend, Luna, Phoebe decides that they will run away and squeeze into the house where their friend, Patrick, lives with 13 siblings. What’s two more? Against Luna’s better judgment, Phoebe cuts off her butt-length hair and becomes a Peter Pan-like addition to Patrick’s topsy-turvy home. As she moves forward in her rebellion, the new discoveries she makes push back against her childhood fears and desires, and a new person struggles to make her way into the world.

Readers will be stepping into a fully fleshed-out world, one that is easily put into the context of your neighborhood, your child, or your child’s rebellious friend. There is a spark in Phoebe that is flamed into a beautiful fire of new life throughout the story. It feels as if this is a diary of someone you thought you knew well, only to discover some new truths you hadn’t expected. I love the friendships in this story, how there is such a push and pull of autonomy and neediness, a celebration of the new while mourning the old, a kinetic sense of the energy that it takes to make it from one human platform to the next.

THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS is well tuned to both the joys and difficulties of being alive, so the characters will swing you between the two with your full gratitude.

It is nice to read a book where a young woman’s steps into maturity don’t include running OnlyFans, having affairs with creepy older men, or delving into a world where the wicked is the way of the day. I don’t mean to sound prudish, but this novel captures a reality that I think is far more prevalent in this society, a whirlwind of emotions and actions that slowly begin to add up to the adult a young person wishes to become. Phoebe’s journey is exciting in its quiet steps as much as in its fast-paced ones. Although others matter in the way she figures things out, it is her own striving for her truth that carries the story and builds her a new life.

Jane Hamilton’s exploration of family and independence, and everything in between, is a sweet, funny and beautiful portrait of a journey that everyone travels. She puts her elegant and thoughtful prose to excellent use here, making THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS one of the best books I have read this year. Thank you, Ms. Hamilton, for not sensationalizing this time of a young woman’s life. Long live Phoebe!