A Reason to See You Again: A Novel

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars | 281 ratings

Price: 25.19

Last update: 02-04-2025


About this item

A Most Anticipated Book from: New York Times * People *Associated Press * Time * Saturday Evening Post * Real Simple * Book Bub * Alta

From New York Timesbestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling novel of family, following a troubled mother and her two daughters over forty years and through a swiftly changing American landscape as they seek lives they can fully claim as their own.

The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone’s lives soon take a dramatic turn.

Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of twenty-one to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her.

But they each learn in different ways that running from the past can’t save you—and then must make life-altering decisions about what they want their family to be and what they need to move forward.

Beginning in the 1970s and spanning forty years, A Reason to See You Again takes the listener on a kaleidoscopic journey through motherhood, the American workforce, the tech industry, the self-help movement, inherited trauma, the ever-evolving ways we communicate with one another, and the many unexpected forms that love can take.


Top reviews from the United States

  • caufeegal
    4.0 out of 5 stars Story of Relationships
    Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2024
    This book gave us the opportunity to see each relationship in a family from many sides. Nothing is simple. And although you may feel like an action is directed at you, it may have nothing to do with you. Perspective changes everything.
  • She Treads Softly
    3.0 out of 5 stars recommended dysfunctional mother/daughter drama
    Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2024
    A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg is a recommended dysfunctional mother/daughter drama spanning over forty decades.

    After Chicago residents Frieda Cohen and her two daughters, Nancy and Shelly, lose their husband/father Rudy, a closeted Holocaust survivor, they slowly fall apart as a family under Frieda's sharp tongue. Nancy heads to college where she soon moves in with her boyfriend and future husband, Robby, and becomes pregnant at 21. They have a daughter, Jess. Shelly graduates early and heads off to the west coast for college and stays on the coast to work in the emerging tech industry. Frieda drinks, a lot, and eventually makes her way to Miami to drink some more. What follows is a portrayal of the women in a complex, troubled, unhappy family.

    A Reason to See You Again is a character driven novel as it follows and develops the female characters who are members of this distinctly unhappy and dysfunctional family over a span of forty years. Chapters alternate between characters as they all experience resentment, unspoken anger, change allegiances, and hold grudges against each other. The male characters are basically despicable or irrelevant. Really, none of the characters are likable.

    After a very promising start the narrative decidedly coasted downhill for me. There is no real, firm plot. As the chapters randomly jump ahead in time and follow a different character, I was often left wanting more as a reader. It also felt melancholy. I wanted to love this novel but ended up just barely liking some parts of it. Thanks to Ecco for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
  • Daivalocity
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, sad, entertaining, hopeful novel
    Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2025
    This novel is multi-voiced, written from different perspectives and in different voices, which makes it believable and engaging. The characters aren't always likeable, but we see them grow and strive for meaning--in work, husbands, children, friends. While occasionally the book was difficult to read on an emotional level, the writing pulled me in, making A Reason to See You Again a highly satisfying reading experience.
  • K Arnold
    4.0 out of 5 stars Choppy like a relationship
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2024
    The story begins with a family that suffers the loss of the father. From there the story widens but moves along choppily and sometimes difficult to follow. The theme being relationships.
  • Pam
    3.0 out of 5 stars Character-Driven Family Saga
    Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2024
    I had high hopes for this book. I generally enjoy disfunctional family sagas, and when the book started out with the family's mandatory game night, I was hooked. Covering four decades beginning in the 1970s, the story centers around matriarch/alcoholic and at times, angry, Frieda; gentle and kind patriarch Rudy, a Holocaust survivor who has a deep secret; and their two daughters, smart Shelly and beautiful Nancy. It's not giving away anything to say that the women come together to mourn Rudy's passing, because the book is primarily about how the women deal with his loss over the years and how they grow as individuals over the years. Frieda was definitely not my favorite, but I was invested in Shelly and Nancy's storylines, although I felt like the book was more character-driven than plot-driven. I think there was a bit too much pain and adversity, yet I kept reading. Mixed feelings, but I am sure there is an audience that will love this book.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for the ARC, and the opportunity to review this novel.
  • Linda Trotta
    2.0 out of 5 stars Very mediocre and disjointed book
    Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2024
    Felt nothing for the characters. Shallow and disjointed. The only book I thought was as overrated was Hello Beautiful, which was a real waste of time. I laughed when I saw that its author, Ann Napolitano , wrote a recommendation and high praise review for this book.
  • B. Goldberg
    5.0 out of 5 stars Bingeable and compulsively readable family saga
    Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2024
    The Cohen family is unlikable - Frieda is a difficult, and often cruel, mother to her daughters Nancy (the pretty one) and Shelley (the smart one). Neither daughter cares much for their mother, and all can go months without speaking. And yet. Attenberg skillfully builds their world and has us rooting for this multi-generational family of strong, confident and damaged women over the many decades of their lives. Indeed, we finish the book wanting more. Attenberg is so good at storytelling that our time with the Cohen women feels too short. She is such a good storyteller that we are immersed in their complicated, damaged and damaging interactions. She is so good that this book is bingeable and compulsively readable. Highly recommend. Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the ARC.
  • Penny Balogh
    4.0 out of 5 stars Evolving, surviving relationships
    Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2025
    I liked this complicated family drama and the imperfect character development. Lots of topics like mother's and daughter, marriage, divorce, intergenerational trauma, death and forgiveness. It kept me thinking, entertained and hooked. I liked it.

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