Best-selling author Emily Giffin delivers another emotionally honest work with her novel First Comes Love.
She paints a relatable picture chronicling the journey of two sisters who end up on opposite ends of the domestic spectrum 15 years after tragedy strikes their family.
Judging by her Facebook profile, Meredith has a pretty good life. However, even though her social-media hashtags proclaim she feels “blessed”, Meredith can’t seem to shake the feeling that something is missing from her marriage. Her husband is kind and attractive, he provides for the family and adores his wife and their 4-year-old daughter – but it feels more like a friendship than a passionate romance, and Meredith secretly wonders whether circumstances years ago forced her down the wedding aisle out of guilt.
Josie, meanwhile, longs for Meredith’s life. She would give anything to be a mother. In fact, she is planning to skip marriage to get to the baby carriage part. When her ex-boyfriend’s child ends up as a pupil in her first-grade class, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands and begins to research the options for having a baby on her own. Following the tragedy, she mastered the skill of taking control of her life – why stop now?
First Comes Love is a heart-stirring novel about the many layers of sibling rivalry and Giffin expertly fills in the gaps of a story that spans 15 years.
It’s a story about the past and the future, fighting and forgiveness. It’s a story about following your heart. It’s a story that insists readers consider their own lives and the question: “Should love come first?”
artslife@thenational.ae
