Then She Found Me [Hardcover]

I'd recommend this book to anyone yet to read this wonderful author. Lipman's books are quirky and funny and very atypical. THEN SHE FOUND ME will leave you giggling and smiling. The story's central theme of an adopted girl who is reunited with her birth mother is a delightful read and full of great characters. The author is excerpt at giving the reader a colorful picture of all scenes and players. You'll picture them while reading about them, and think of them fondly afterward.

From the author of The Difference Now, A New Dish, and At the Coffee Shop.

April, a lonely teacher with a quiet life, grew up happily in an adoptive family. Shortly after the death of her adoptive parents, however, she is contacted by Bernice, a flashy talk show host who claims to be her real mother. April is not the type of daughter Bernice expected to find, and Bernice is not exactly the birth mother who April dreamed about for years. Their reunion is sometimes stormy but ultimately heartwarming; the additional plotline of April's romance only contributes to making the novel both humorous and touching.

I was a young mom when I discovered this book at the local library. Although I'd always been a voracious reader, it had been a few years since I'd found anything that engrossed me. With rambunctious toddlers to tend, I found myself reading Parents magazine instead of the sharp, insightful, quirky fiction that I'd always loved.
And then I found Elinor Lipman. I think the description on the back of the book pulled me in: toad-sized earrings? Should be an interesting character, I thought. I read the book in one sitting and then flipped to the first page and read it over again. I was starved for fiction and Elinor Lipman served up a delicious entree in a completely unique way. She doesn't get the credit she deserves for being one of the first (and best) of the witty-women-fiction-writers who are now so common.
Lipman's gift for dialogue, her light touch and her original, imperfect but charming characters make her a modern-day Jane Austen. She can write a comedy of manners better than anyone who's currently publishing. The romance between April and her unlikely Prince Charming is a touching surprise, and the tension between the laid-back, no-frills April and her overbearing birth mother is perfectly depicted through Lipman's well-chosen descriptions and naturally witty dialogue. She makes it look easy.
When I worked at a bookstore, I recommended this book to anyone who was looking for a well-written light love story with a bit of an edge. I'll always have a special place in my heart for this book: it was the first novel I read after a few years of reading nothing but baby-related stuff, and it reminded me again how fiction can really touch your heart. I'm glad I made time for this book, and I'm glad I bought my own copy and have reread it several times since that first day (my kids are teenagers now and this remains on my all-time favorites list!) Although some of her subsequent books haven't been as engaging, Elinor Lipman remains a master at what she does, creating memorable heroines and surprising love interests, dialogue that crackles with wit, and plot lines that are a wonderful escape from the harsh realities of most of today's good fiction. A new book from Lipman is always a cause for celebration and a reason to shell out the extra bucks for a hardcover.