Living Other Lives

by Caroline Leavitt

Lilly Bloom is a college graduate with a degree in English and few job prospects, even in New York City. When she resorts to telling fortunes in a Manhattan restaurant, she finds she has a knack for intuitively picking up the details of other people's lives and astounding them with what she knows. Here she meets Matt, a friendly, out-of-town veterinarian, and when she attempts to tell his fortune, he becomes the love of her life. Matt and Lilly plan to marry, so Matt brings his teenage daughter, Dinah, to New York City to meet his bride. Suddenly, a tragic accident occurs, and the man they both love dies. Now Lilly is taking Dinah to Pittsburgh to live with Matt's mother, Dell, the hardworking grandmother Dinah barely knows. After that, Lilly intends to drive madly across the country, hoping to stay just ahead of her grief. But the connections between the women will stop her from moving on so easily. Their shared love for Matt has forever tangled, knotted together, and inextricably intertwined their lives. What they have to give each other, and what they need to take, will astonish you and touch your heart.

Genres: Fiction

327 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World, Is This Tomorrow, With or Without You, Pictures of You (Algonquin Books), which. Pictures of You was on the Best Books of the Year lists from the San Francisco Chronicle, The Providence Journal, Bookmarks and Kirkus Reviews. It was also a Costco Pennie's Pick. Is This Tomorrow was long listed for the Main Readers Prize, a WNBA Reading group Choice, A San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick/Editor's Choice, a Jewish Book Club Pic and the winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award.

Her 13th novel DAYS OF WONDER will be published by Algonquin/Hatchette in the spring of 2024.

The winner of a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant, a second prize winner in Goldenberg Fiction Prize, A Sundance Screenwriting Lab Finalist, a Nickelodeon Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist and a National Magazine Award Nominee, Leavitt is a senior writing instructor at UCLA and Stanford online and a freelance manuscript consultant. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Salon,More, and more.
She has been featured on The Today Show and profiled in the New York Times.

You can reach her through www.carolineleavitt.com. On twitter @leavittnovelist. On Instagram @carolineleavitt and FB https://www.facebook.com/carolineleav... @carowriter99

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lily, an educated woman who tells the fortunes of restaurant patrons, falls for veterinarian Matt who has a brassy teenaged daughter Dinah. When Matt dies suddenly, Lily offers to drive Dinah across the US to live with Matt's elderly mother Dell. One of those books in which the characters are completely real and understandable, whose decisions make perfect sense, and who deserve exactly the outcomes they end up with. I've been searching out this author's books for years and have been rewarded each time, and this one is a gem.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a slow, dull book. I kept waiting for something to happen.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is really good, the only thing i dont like is its giving everyones life story and there are too many people to keep track of, parents children grandparents

the man has a daughter, his wife left them, he was a vet. then he fell in love with a clairvoyant in ny , he lived in ohio. he took his daughter to meet her and he was going to marry her. they went to the lake, the daughter accidentally pushed him too hard on the rope swing thing and he hit his head against the rock and died

the girl had no one to live with, so she ended up with her grandmother. but she was too sick to take care of her, the girl got scared and called the girl her father was going to marry tho she hated her but didnt know what else to do

the grandmothers story is she married a man, he left for the war not knowing she was pregnant. he was mia, but she later found out he just didnt come home, he went awol and lived his whole life without contacting her. she kept his shoe store running till she got sick then sold it.

the girl didnt want to get involved, she had her own problems dealing with his death but she went and got a house to live with the girl till the detective she hired found the girls mother (who disappeared when the girl was so small). the girl wasnt clairvoyant anymore and went to work in a card shop. the girl is having problems at school, no one likes her. she likes a boy with a motorcycle

the book is really good i just wish i could follow all the people better

the girl saw her boyfriend kiss her 'stepmother' and ran off to ny, got raped. the police called the stepmom and she came and got her. they became friends and lived together

it was good

[Frieda]

Couldn't put this book down. I think Leavitt developed her characters well and authenticly. I couldn't help but feel compassion for Dinah, an orphan who finally accepts her situation.I recommend this book to mother's of teenage girls,

[Susheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow start but glad I stuck with it!
Very sad story - and unsettling, just like life can be at times.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring story. Didn't like. Don't recommend.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Leavitt has such a way with characterization that I'm in awe. I'm off to find more of her work!

[Khalil Boulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Caroline Leavitt ever. This story is so sad and happy at the same time. This book will grab you and not let go forever. Read this now!

[Kristin R · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found an old book journal of mine from 1996 - 3 women all ose the man they love, his mother, wife and lover.