The Limits

by Nell Freudenberger

The most thrilling work yet from the best-selling, prize-winning author of The Newlyweds and Lost and Wanted , a stunning new novel set in French Polynesia and New York City about three characters who undergo massive transformations over the course of a single year

From Mo’orea, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti, a French biologist obsessed with saving Polynesia’s imperiled coral reefs sends her teenage daughter to live with her ex-husband in New York. By the time fifteen-year-old Pia arrives at her father Stephen’s luxury apartment in Manhattan and meets his new, younger wife, Kate, she has been shuttled between her parents’ disparate lives—her father’s consuming work as a surgeon at an overwhelmed New York hospital, her mother’s relentless drive against a ticking ecological clock—for most of her life. Fluent in French, intellectually precocious, moving between cultures with seeming ease, Pia arrives in New York poised for a rebellion, just as COVID sends her and her stepmother together into near total isolation.

A New York City schoolteacher, Kate struggles to connect with a teenager whose capacity for destruction seems exceeded only by her privilege. Even as Kate fails to parent Pia—and questions her own ability to become a mother—one of her sixteen-year-old students is already caring for a toddler full time. Athyna’s love for her nephew, Marcus, is a burden that becomes heavier as she struggles to finish her senior year online. Juggling her manifold responsibilities, Athyna finds herself more and more anxious every time she leaves the house. Just as her fear of what is waiting for her outside her Staten Island community feels insupportable, an incident at home makes her desperate to leave.

When their lives collide, Pia and Athyna spiral toward parallel but inescapably different tragedies. Moving from a South Pacific “paradise,” where rage still simmers against the colonial government and its devastating nuclear tests, to the extreme inequalities of twenty-first century New York City, The Limits is an unforgettably moving novel about nation, race, class, and family. Heart-wrenching and humane, a profound work from one of America’s most prodigiously gifted novelists.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, New York, Family Drama, Coming Of Age

368 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 2024

About the author

Nell Freudenberger is the author of the novel The Dissident and the story collection Lucky Girls, winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; both books were New York Times Book Review Notables. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship from the New York Public Library, she was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40.” She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Reviews

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Freudenberger's last novel, LOST AND WANTED, so I kept reading this one waiting for the same magic to happen. And when the magic wasn't happening I told myself she had to be going somewhere (even though L&W never did) but no, it did not go anywhere and what the book was at the start was what it still was at the end.

It's a Covid book, one that doesn't shy away from all the details, especially with a character who's a cardiologist in a New York City hospital. But I often found myself bored with the characters, except for Athyna, who is actually interesting and who it's not clear why she is in this book at all but also why we can't just get rid of everything else and have a book only about her. She gets short shrift compared to everyone else, and it just kept bugging me.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nell Freudenberger is one of those authors who is so preternaturally talented so as to be nearly unreviewable. You’re just left wondering HOW? around her globe-spanning, STEM-minded imagination and ability to illuminate character and detail with such thoughtful authenticity and embrace and entwine powerful themes both timeless/universal and timely/pressing. Who am I to even really say anything about this?


In this novel, personal anxieties, preoccupations, and passions are typically political. We have a passionate and renowned New York City cardiologist who is fully absorbed in the front-line trenches of the Covid war. He is now married to a pregnant New York City public schoolteacher whose students, including the remarkably resilient Athyna, endeavor to learn and thrive at the intersection of public health, social justice, and environmental issues. He is divorced from, but still connected to an equally passionate French marine biologist and researcher who is living in Tahiti and is also literally in the trenches of the ocean trying to understand and save the coral that is the bedrock of the oceanic ecosystem and also to get others to care about it. They share a privileged but troubled and often displaced and shuffled-around teen daughter named Pia who is acutely aware of feeling at best second on each of her parent’s respective urgent priority lists. In the course of being shuttled around the globe as her parents try to figure out her appropriate schooling and supervision (childcare is a theme of this novel), further complicated by Covid, Pia develops a perhaps-unhealthy attachment to a young adult adult native Islander who now works for Pia’s mom’s research institute and who has an ambivalent relationship with the scientists and students who have appropriated his homeland and a possibly dissenting view of how best to pursue their shared aims of ecological and social justice.


Whether the author fully pulls everything off in the end, I’m not quite sure: this novel takes on A LOT. You might say it takes it to The Limits! But it’s close enough; it’s perfect on the sentence level and by and large overall, and even imperfect Freudenberger is chef’s kiss. I’ve admired her since she was probably just a child and was included in one of those Best American Short Stories anthologies. I might recommend this to people who liked Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers - although I DO myself believe that novel IS literally perfect.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the first long, hard days of COVID, I vividly recall taking a pause from the relentlessly depressing news and wondering, “Sometime, when all of us are hopefully in a better place, how will writers view this unprecedented time and turn it into art?”

The answer is: like this. Just like this.

Pia, who is 15 years old, is thrust into a world that has ceased making sense. Her mother, a dedicated French biologist, is spending every ounce of energy trying to save Polynesia’s imperiled coral reefs from Mo’orea, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti. Her father lives half a world away in New York City, is overwhelmed with the enormity of saving lives in the hospital he works at. When her parents decide that she would be better off in New York, she suddenly finds herself in isolation with her young pregnant stepmother, Kate, whom she barely knows.

She doesn’t want to be there. She really wants to go back to Mo’orea, to be with a man twice her age, whose vision, passion, and social stances captivate her. As she tries to put together a plan, she ends up connecting with one of Kate’s students, Athyna, who is dealing with her own very complicated and even threatening family dynamics. With the odds against her, Athyna is struggling to recognize her own dreams.

Without becoming overly pedantic, Nell Freudenberger spells out what’s at stake: the folly of mining for the coral reefs that serve important functions in protecting coastal communities. And the race against the clock fight against a disease that humanity has never experienced before. Yet through this times that are fraught with danger, the author develops a subplot that is relatable in any time – a teenager from a divorced home who is struggling to make sense of her parents, her life, and the complex emotions she can barely control.

This is a wonderful rendering of a complicated time when realities shifted and changed and inner turmoil rocked our world and particularly the world of younger people. It touches on the many facets of life as it affects us now – from uncertainty and anxiety to racism and colonialism and beyond. I believe this is Nell Freudenberger’s best book yet. I owe a big thanks to Knopf, who enabled me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.

#Knopf #Pantheon #The Limits #Nellfreudenberger

[Judy]

I did not finish this book.

[Karen Axnick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my first exposure to this author’s work, and it was not a particularly enjoyable experience. The pacing is slow for most of novel; there are too many characters that left me wanting more depth, especially the protagonists; and the technical scientific descriptions of coral research were mind numbing at times. Additionally, I do not speak French and the volume of French phrases and sentences, with little hint at translation, made the reading challenging if not annoying. I did find the historical information about nuclear testing and its effects on the Indigenous populations simultaneously illuminating in scope and shameful in the utter disregard for the welfare of fellow human beings.

Overall, the writing lacked the emotional quality that supports engaging with the characters and the storyline. The elements were all there – the complicated relationships, the impact of the pandemic, and the inequities in an urban population – but the back stories were only hinted at, never revealing a depth that invited a real connection and empathy for their struggles.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

[Tess · Rating 2 out of 5]

A vast yet intimate COVID novel that just wasn’t quite for me, I’m beginning to feel that Freudenberger is an incredible novelist but just not my cup of tea. I had a hard time connecting with this cast of characters, It is certainly literary fiction operating at a high level, but it didn’t draw me in as much as good lit fic novels usually do. I didn’t get the overall thesis of theme of the book, and unlike some COVID books which I honestly don’t mind, I didn’t like revisiting the time period in this particular one. I think it was just too slow for me, and the divorced couple at the center, with a teen going between Tahiti where her mom lives, and NYC where her dad and new stepmom live, wasn’t enough to keep my attention.

[AndiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nell Freudenberger is the author of The Newlyweds and Lost and Wanted, The Limits is a tension-filled literary work set in French Polynesia (Tahiti) and New York City during Covid

Kate is David's newish wife. She is pregnant and teaching from home during covid while he spends almost all of his time at the hospital helping address the pandemic. When his daughter Pia from his first marriage begins to find trouble halfway across the world, his ex wife ships her to New York. Now Kate struggles to connect with her isolated students via zoom, juggle morning sickness and deal with a deeply unhappy teenager.

When Pia meets one of Kate's students by chance, the trajectory of all three females collide.
Freudenberger has created a beautiful rendering of covid. While Limits includes some of the claustrophobic working against the clock feeling, there also some very hopeful moments. This is an enjoyable read that focuses on family issues as well as colonialism and race.
Ready for a trip to Tahiti? A complex novel about relationships and families? Or maybe just a wonderful contemporary story? The Limits is for you!
.#knopf #Pantheon #Thelimits #Nellfreudenberger

[Erin B SC · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not an easy read. It comes from many different perspectives and it is not always clear at the beginning of a chapter which character we are hearing from. There was a lot of scientific material, which is usually no problem for me, but I don’t feel like it was presented in a clear and understandable way. The story seemed to have very divergent storylines, and I expected them to come together but never felt like they did. I also didn’t feel like I learned a lot about the characters and what motivated them to do what they did. I am finding myself drawn to books about the pandemic and peoples’ different experiences during those days, be it fiction or non-fiction, and that kept me interested in reading.

[Amy Brown (amylikestoreadalot) · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot happening in the book-ocean science, motherhood, marriage, teenagers, all set in the Pandemic. We follow three women over the course of a year, Nathalie, a scientist living in Tahiti, her daughter, Pia, living in Tahiti and NYC with her dad, and Kate, Pia's new stepmom, who is a teacher and expecting a baby. It's very readable, and I wanted to find out what was going to happen. It got a little too science-y at the end. 3.75 stars rounded up to 4 because I enjoyed reading it. Thanks to Netgalley for my review copy in return for my honest review.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about marine science in Tahiti, reminiscing about Covid, and the tension surrounding the possibility of a bomb. After just returning from NYC it was also interesting reading about sites I just walked past. The book is well-written, it was a relatively quick read for me. A lot of sadness juxtaposed with beautiful scenery. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

[Sarah Tamsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had all the right ingredients for me to love it, but I just didn’t; it felt stilted and overworked, and even though I read the whole thing, I couldn’t tell you much of anything about the characters beyond their surface-level identifying facts.

[Cannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

very french of the author to not translate any of the french phrases (thanks for nothing Duolingo)

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written family drama that takes place during the pandemic. The narrators shifted among five different characters and it felt like there was a bit too much going on for me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freudenberger is one of my favorite modern American authors. Her novels are totally original and complex. Not a typical “woman’s” novel, rather a compelling journey. This book deals with a family in crisis, but that is a mere fraction of all that is going on within this novel. Again, this book is set against the backdrop of the disruption of Covid.

Pia leaves her South Pacific home to return to her father and his new wife in Manhattan as a result of the pandemic. However, the family relationship is complicated by Pia’s resentment at being at her father’s home and the revelation of her stepmother’s pregnancy.

Her mother, Nathalie remains in the South Pacific studying the complications of coral disease. As a reader, I learned a great deal about the undersea world and the people dedicated to preserving it.

Add to all this, a sub-plot about a young student of her stepmother’s, Athyna. Of course, as an educator, I was especially drawn to this aspirational and open hearted young woman.

This is another special Freudenberger novel, not to be missed. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity of reading and reviewing this novel.

[Brooke (B for Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work of fiction is focused on relationships during the early COVID pandemic. I loved the sparse writing style and was motivated to continue reading throughout the book even though there is not much action. The female MC is a French marine biologist and many comparisons are made with sea life especially coral and anemones. There were themes of the limits of science and math equations, and life does not fit within imposed or contrived limits. We have so little control over circumstances, and even what we say is our limit.

I often thought that teens had some significant struggles during COVID. Kids are resilient, but COVID tested their limits and affected them during a vulnerable developmental period in their lives.

*There is a conversation which I did not feel was handled sensitively and that was around miscarriages. It's one thing to have a side character make an insensitive comments, but in a book about what it was like for teens to grow up during the pandemic, I thought this needed to be addressed in some way. This is why it lost a star for me.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the author's last novel, Lost and Wanted, with its interplay between life and science, and this one is again in that vein - here, nuclear testing, coral mining, environmental death, the pandemic, and more. We move among five characters - Nathalie, a French marine biologist in Polynesia, Stephen, her ex-husband and a doctor at a NY hospital in the midst of the pandemic, their angry 15 year old daughter Pia who has an age-inappropriate crush on someone Nathalie's lab employs, Kate, Stephen's new and pregnant wife, a high school teacher, and Athyna, a Black high school senior and one of Kate's students who is doing classes on Zoom and caring for her young nephew. The story moves around them, and uses as well secret email correspondence between the Nathalie and Stephen, and Pia's journal about life and nuclear testing, which all reads as far too old to have been written by a teen girl. Too much, trying to cover so many topics that the story itself suffers. High stake plot-points lose their threat swamped by the too-muchness of it all.

[Bill Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars…I don’t think all the strands of the novel fully cohere, and the connections between the storylines and the characters feel contrived…but the writing is intelligent and thoughtful, and Freudenberger never talks down to the reader. I liked it mostly for the science and the history and how she captures the feel of the setting (both time and place)—the plot I’m sure I’ll forget.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a heart-wrenching and humane novel set in French Polynesia and New York City about three characters who undergo massive transformations when the pandemic hits. The book is about a French scientist named Natalie who works on the island of Maria in French Polynesia, which has been an epicenter for coral research for decades. Natalie also has a teenage daughter named Pia, who is going to New York to live with her father and her new stepmother (Kate), a New York City school teacher. Pia and Kate are not prepared for the amount of time they will spend together. Natalie ends up reconnecting with her ex-husband (Pia's father), Stephen, over email at a time when people were disconnecting.

This story is really about the way that the natural world is changing and how it puts pressure on our most important relationships. It also gives us a profound glimpse into the Pacific Ocean and the state of coral reefs, all while dealing with the pandemic, family relationships, and teenage problems. This book really takes you back to that time during COVID-19, our need for social interactions, and our desperate need for hope.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://zibbymedia.com/blogs/transcri...

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read, interesting characters and relatable story of how to balance family and career.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A teenage girl living in Tahiti with her marine biologist mother is forced to spend the pandemic in New York with her father and stepmother. Really well written and a compelling story.

[Kim Novak (The Reading Rx) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Limits is set amongst the onslaught of COVID-19 pandemic as a teen and per split family navigate her coming of age, the pandemic, careers, and family changes. What drama occurs when teens lie and hide things from their parents? What drama ensues when parents prioritize their careers and give their teens a bit too much freedom. How do babies change things? Environmental factors? Friends, old and new?

I really liked the dual settings of NYC and Tahiti amongst the pandemic... two very different COVID experiences. As in real life, there was an underlying sense of dread... from both COVID and poor choices. Somehow this story left me feeling both depressed and full of hope... so I guess this would be a good book for realists!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ebook. Fifteen year old Pia has two parents that are currently overwhelmed. Divorced for years now, her mother works against a ticking clock to try and figure out a way to save the coral reef of an island off the coast of Tahiti. Her father, a surgeon at a normally busy New York City hospital, is dealing with the calm before the storm of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pia ends up spending most of her time in New York with a stepmother, a newly pregnant Kate, whom she doesn’t know and feels like she doesn’t need to, because Pia is desperately trying to find a way to get back to Tahiti and back to a young diver who she admires for his political stance and might even love.

[Kath]

Could not get into. DNF, no Rating

[Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you #partner Knopf for my advanced copy and thank you PRHAudio for my #gifted listening copy of The Limits! #PRHAInfluencer #PRHAudioPartner #PRHPartner

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐍𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐜𝐚 𝐋𝐨𝐰𝐦𝐚𝐧
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟗, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

The Limits was an interesting look at three characters who experience so much over the course of one year. Set in both the French Polynesia and New York City. Pia is a 15 year old who has a mother who is a biologist, dedicated to trying to save Polynesia’s coral reefs from a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti. Her father works at a hospital in NYC, and when her parents decide that she would be better off in New York, she suddenly finds herself with her pregnant stepmother, Kate, in isolation at the height of the COVID pandemic. Wanting to be anywhere but in New York, Pia finds an unlikely connection with one of Kate’s students, Athyna. When their lives collide, Pia Athyna spiral toward similar but different tragedies.

I found this book to be very thought provoking. It brought back a lot of memories centered around the pandemic, and a lot of thoughts related to race and class. This is one I still need to sit with for a bit and gather my thoughts. It was a bit of a difficult read for me to grasp, but I did find it very interesting.

🎧I alternated between the physical book and the audiobook, narrated by Rebecca Lowman. I really enjoyed my time listening to Lowman bring this story to life and found that I was more drawn to the audiobook at times. I would highly recommend the audio format if that option is available to you!

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This is a book that I think tries to tackle too much for its pages and too soon after all it refers to has happened. Juggling themes of motherhood, environmental activism, the male gaze, colonialism, and the isolation of the pandemic, you just simply don't get to see the fleshed out nuance of any one of them. I also think it had a few too many characters and perspectives that lent themselves to the story feeling unfocused. And for a book with very little actual plot that happens (not a bad thing by any means) we are never invited into the characters' heads and worlds as effectively as some other novels. And I personally struggle with reading adults trying to write teenagers — it comes off as flattening and inauthentic to incorporate "slang" that they young people use. The world, though, is where the writing here shines. Settings and light and color are given more than their due and it's refreshing to see places so beautifully rendered in prose.

[Michelle Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot. The plot kept moving, the characters and setting were interesting, and it had a poignancy about it without any cheesiness. There was also a realism to it that I found comforting.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️💫

[Eunice]

DNF too much bad language.

[Jennifer Ladd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough one for me to review. Chapters are different voices. An accurate account of some people’s pandemic experience. Seriously clueless parents and self absorbed adolescents. All of this wrapped around awful nuclear history involving Tahiti and our modern day plan to destroy more of our planet by mining around this island.

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Freudenberger's last book, Lost and Wanted, and this book had some similarities in them: people within and outside of family getting through life together. The previous book had more of a narrative thrust, whereas this book's plot seemed to be following a different pattern. I enjoyed the different families and the ways they interacted, but the storytelling was more diffusive than in the previous book. COVID plays a big factor in this book.