Blessings

When a baby is left on their doorstep, the lives of Lydia Blessing, the elderly town matriarch, and Skip, her down-and-out caretaker, are transformed. Skip wants to keep the baby and raise it himself. To his surprise, Lydia wants to help. Together, they decide to keep the baby a secret between them. In the process, we discover that they have secrets of their own. The secrets of the past, how they affect the decisions and lives of people in the present; what makes a person or a life legitimate or illegitimate, and who decides; the resources people find in themselves and in a community - these are at the center of this novel of love and redemption by the beloved writer Alice Hoffman called a "national treasure."

Review :
"A polished gem of a novel . . . lovingly crafted, beautifully written." --"The Miami Herald ""A WELL-TOLD STORY OF LOVE AND REDEMPTION." --"The Washington Post Book World ""[A] RICHLY IMAGINED NOVEL OF THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF LOVE." --"St. Louis Post-Dispatch ""EARNEST, DETAILED, AND COMFORTING . . . [Quindlen] delivers . . . on the promise of her title." --"Los Angeles Times ""Anna Quindlen is America's Resident Sane Person. She has what Joyce called the common touch, the ability to speak to many people about what's on their minds before they have the vaguest idea what's on their minds." --"The New York Times ""A well-told story of love and redemption, one that is not based on the passion of a man for a woman but on the affection and understanding that develops between people of very different backgrounds who are brought together by a baby named Faith and a house called Blessings." --"The Washington Post Book World ""Quindlen . . . is as concerned with the evolution of her characters as she is with the resolution of their story. . . . Quindlen's moving and gently humorous depiction of her characters' transformation is thoroughly persuasive. . . . [Her] immense sympathy for her characters remains intact, but her fidelity to certain truths is paramount." --"The New York Times Book Review ""[Quindlen] treats her protagonists and their hardships with such tenderness it's impossible not to grow fond of them." --"Entertainment Weekly" "IMMENSELY APPEALING . . . Quindlen's fine-tuned ear for the class distinctions of speech results in convincing dialogue. Evoking a bygone patrician world, she endows Blessings with an almost magical aura. . . . The narrative is old-fashioned in a positive way, telling a dramatic story through characters who develop and change, and testifying to the triumph of human decency when love is permitted to grow and flourish. . . . [A] feel-good novel, a book that will appeal to the entire family." --"Publishers Weekly ""Quindlen finds a wealth of material in the juxtaposition of two very different lives, moving between lush descriptions of a faille dress in a Park Avenue club library and the incongruous smell of baby wipes in a dive bar. These satisfying details heighten the reader's emotional stake in Skip and Lydia's subtly drawn relationship." --"Vogue ""Readers . . . will be rewarded by a story they cannot put down." --"BookPage" "From the Paperback edition."