An unlikely friendship between a septuagenarian and a younger woman becomes a story of broken trust, lost love, and the unexpected blooming of hope against the longest odds.
"You trying to kill yourself, or are you just stupid?"
Marcie Malone didn't think she was either, but when she drives from Georgia to the southwestern shore of Florida without a plan and wakes up in a stranger's home, she doesn't seem to know anymore. Despondent and heartbroken over an unexpected loss and the man she thought she could count on, Marcie leaves him behind, along with her job and her whole life, and finds she has nowhere to go.
Herman Flint has seen just about everything in his seventy years living in a fading, blue-collar Florida town, but the body collapsed on the beach outside his window is something new. The woman is clearly in some kind of trouble and Flint wants no part of it—he's learned to live on his own just fine, without the hassle of worrying about others. But against his better judgment he takes Marcie in and lets her stay until she's on her feet on the condition she keeps out of his way.
As the unlikely pair slowly copes with the damage life has wrought, Marcie and Flint have to decide whether to face up to the past they’ve each been running from, and find a way to move forward with the people they care about most.
Genre: General Fiction
"You trying to kill yourself, or are you just stupid?"
Marcie Malone didn't think she was either, but when she drives from Georgia to the southwestern shore of Florida without a plan and wakes up in a stranger's home, she doesn't seem to know anymore. Despondent and heartbroken over an unexpected loss and the man she thought she could count on, Marcie leaves him behind, along with her job and her whole life, and finds she has nowhere to go.
Herman Flint has seen just about everything in his seventy years living in a fading, blue-collar Florida town, but the body collapsed on the beach outside his window is something new. The woman is clearly in some kind of trouble and Flint wants no part of it—he's learned to live on his own just fine, without the hassle of worrying about others. But against his better judgment he takes Marcie in and lets her stay until she's on her feet on the condition she keeps out of his way.
As the unlikely pair slowly copes with the damage life has wrought, Marcie and Flint have to decide whether to face up to the past they’ve each been running from, and find a way to move forward with the people they care about most.
Genre: General Fiction
Praise for this book
"Phoebe Fox simply keeps getting better. Her latest The Way We Weren't is so deeply satisfying on every level that it will continue to resonate with you long after you turn the page on one of the most exquisitely perfect endings you are likely to encounter in some time. As finely wrought as all of Fox's characters are, special mention must be made of how fully and lovingly she brings the Gulf Coast of Florida to life. The Way We Weren't is exactly the beach-trip-in-a-book that you are yearning to dive into right now. An achingly artful portrayal of love lost and love reclaimed." - Sarah Bird
"A story of the reassessment of the lives of two unlikely strangers who meet--an old man and a young woman--who together discover that the place in life they have chosen for themselves does not bring the fulfillment they had worked to have. An insightful and compelling read of the courage to change horses in midstream to reach the shore of new beginnings." - Leila Meacham
"A story of the reassessment of the lives of two unlikely strangers who meet--an old man and a young woman--who together discover that the place in life they have chosen for themselves does not bring the fulfillment they had worked to have. An insightful and compelling read of the courage to change horses in midstream to reach the shore of new beginnings." - Leila Meacham
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Used availability for Phoebe Fox's The Way We Weren't