Golden Hills
By: Jennifer Weiner
Narrator: Courtney Patterson
ASIN: B0C1TMW7ZR
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Publication Date: 06/01/2023
Format: e-book & audiobook
My Rating: 5 Stars
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a heartfelt short story about a complicated friendship and a youthful betrayal that still has the power to shape two women’s lives.
Senatorial favorite Ida Berkowitz is headed for a win. Raised by a hardworking widowed mother, she’s authentic, relatable, and down-to-earth. Voters love her. Polls promise victory. Then her campaign manager utters four awful words: Who is Marissa Schuyler? She had almost managed to forget. Ida’s bunkmate at Camp Golden Hills when they were girls, Marissa was confident, sophisticated, and wealthy. Everything Ida wasn’t. Now the polished wife of a major conservative donor, Marissa’s announced a press conference. About Ida.
Just like that, Ida’s old insecurities come rushing in. So do new feelings of dread. After all these years, she knows what’s on Marissa’s mind. It could undermine everything Ida’s worked for. Because it isn’t very pretty.
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From the Publisher:
Jennifer Weiner is a master of writing complicated female friendships, and her new short story is no exception. Just as she did in Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, or even going back to In Her Shoes, she creates flawed characters that I still find myself rooting for.
This compact-yet-complex short story packs in themes of memory, first love, and friendship. Ida has been burning the candle at both ends during her campaign for the Senate. So when she hears the name “Marissa Schuyler” for the first time in twenty years, at first she has no idea who that could be. Then, when memories of Camp Golden Hills come rushing back, so does the shame and guilt and resentment of two friends who each betrayed the other. Ida tried to bury the pain of broken trust, and she almost succeeded—but in politics, perception is everything, and right now one word from Marissa could undermine everything she’s worked for.
We can push away the things we’d rather not remember, but they never really leave us. We have to face them eventually. Jen’s writing always reminds me that people can surprise themselves with their ability to offer and to accept forgiveness.
—Kjersti Egerdahl, Editor
About the Author
Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Summer Place, That Summer, and In Her Shoes, as well as short stories, essays, and nonfiction. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, and Redbook, among many others.
