Wait

by Gabriella Burnham

A young woman reunites with her teenage sister in their childhood home on Nantucket Island after their mother disappears.

Elise is out dancing the night before her college graduation when her younger sister Sophie calls to tell her their mom is nowhere to be found. Elise leaves on the next flight back to her childhood home, Nantucket Island, for the first time in nearly four years. When she arrives she discovers the ways in which her whip-smart little sister has had to make do without her.

The sisters soon learn that police stopped their mother on her way home from work and deported her to São Paulo, Brazil. Intent on bringing her back, Elise stays and secures the same job she had in high school: monitoring endangered birds that have laid eggs on a remote beach. Meanwhile, her best friend from college, Sheba—a gregarious socialite and heir to a famed children's toy company—reveals that she has inherited her grandfather’s summer mansion on Nantucket. What will Elise do when the new life she created in college collides with the life she left behind on the island? As she confronts the emotional and material realities that have fractured her family, she is confronted by a world in Brazil that her mother has had to leave behind, too.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Family, Adult Fiction, Audiobook, Adult

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2024

About the author

Gabriella Burnham is the author of Wait and It Is Wood, It Is Stone, which was named a best book of the year by Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Publisher’s Weekly, and Good Housekeeping magazines. She holds an MFA in creative writing from St. Joseph’s College and has been awarded fellowships to MacDowell, where she was named a Harris Center Fellow, and Yaddo. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. She and her partner live in Brooklyn with their two rescue cats, Galleta and Franz.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love books about sisters.

this is just a look at two sisters' single summer, and i wish it told me more or had more of an ending or wasn't omniscient in perspective which i hate, but i love sisters and i love summer and i love new england and this scratched all of those itches.

sorry, that was gross.

bottom line: i love to have the fun kind of unpopular opinion.

(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the arc)

[Lizzy Brannan · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all, thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my unfortunately honest review.

Elise and Sophie are sisters and are used to their mom not returning home for a few days, but when it’s been a couple of weeks, Elise returns home from college realizing her mom has been deported back to Brazil. The girls are used to fending for themselves and that’s what they do, hoping Mom will return.

And that’s it. The rest of the book just follows the two girls through their days at work, home, and staying with a friend. I don’t know y’all. I hate saying this, but this might actually be the worst book I’ve ever read. I can’t believe I made it through the whole thing. I’m hardly ever this blunt, but I just don’t understand how a book like this can make it this far in publication - with multiple people proofreading and editing. I mean, the stakes are low 90% of the time, the characters are undeveloped, writing flows as if improvised from scene to scene, no real adventure, no suspense, no developed romance, little attention to the through line, ending is random, and there are STRANGE insertions of sexual language with no purpose or follow through. I mean, I could admit to “it’s just not my thing”, but there are many books that aren’t my thing where I honor good solid writing. This ain’t it. So I have to be honest in my review. I hope I am proved wrong when I say I can’t see this book doing well. I’m not even sure I know of an audience to which I could recommend this. Ugh. I don’t want to give a bad review. It’s just not worth reading.

[Holly R W · Rating 4 out of 5]

This coming of age story centers around Elise - a 22 year old, Latina woman who was raised on Nantucket Island by her Brazilian mother. She has a younger sister (Sophie), whom she loves. Her father abandoned the family when the sisters were very young. When the novel opens, Elise is graduating college and awaiting her mother and sister's arrival for the ceremony. They don't come, as the mother goes missing. Distraught, Elise comes home and together with her sister, searches for their mom.

The tale is all about Elise's relationships. The author nicely develops the key characters. Elise's immigrant, single mother works 70 hour weeks as a cook and is anxious about being in the country illegally. Elise's college room-mate/best friend (Sheba) is uber wealthy, raised by two mothers, and is a party girl. Sister Sophie is 18 years old, feisty and capable of taking care of herself. Elise herself has a foot in both worlds - her blue-collar, Nantucket home and the world that college and Sheba have exposed her to. Elise takes a job on the island as an endangered species monitor, spending her days observing piping plovers and their eggs.

I found the book interesting and a welcome respite. I read it between packing moving boxes.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is indeed a lot of waiting in this book. Sisters Elise and Sophie are waiting to see what will become of them, and their at-risk home and family, after their mother is deported. (Concurrently, mother Gilda is reconnecting with her family of origin in Brazil and trying to fill her time and build a daily life and routine as she awaits learning the outcome of her appeal process and how or whether she will reunite with her daughters.) It’s summertime on Nantucket, where Sophie and Elise are left behind unexpectedly in charge of their own lives and reside amidst many wealthy seasonal residents and summering tourists, and they wait on these people as caterers and servers. Elise also waits on the beach in her role as a wildlife monitor overseeing the fragile breeding grounds of endangered birds. Sophie and Elise temporarily crash with Sheba, a very rich, discontented, and insecure seasonal resident friend who seems to be waiting around listlessly for attention and acceptance (from parents and others) and a sense of purpose and satisfaction that she cannot seem to muster. And since both Sophie and Elise have recently graduated, from high school and college respectively, both are sort of waiting around for the next chapters of their lives to begin and feeling unsure of what steps to take to make that happen, especially in light of how their family has been torn apart. This novel is drawn with an extremely light touch in terms of plot and is more of a sketch of a moment in time. While I sometimes wished it all came together a bit more clearly and was a tad more filled-in - it often feels like an extended short story - it is still an interesting consideration of uncertainty, instability, and what it means to have a home and to belong.

[Tell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, sharp book about class, longing, and Nantucket. A first gen fish out of water narrative gets refreshed by setting the book "on island", and explores the intricacies and complexities of friendship and interclass relations among locals and summer people.

I thought this would be more of a traditional sisterhood novel, but I loved the way it shook out. I wanted more Gilda and her eternal yearning for Somewhere Else.

[AndiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a coming of age novel for a young woman who has lived life to date somewhat naively, sheltered under the protection of a very wealthy friend. As with any coming of age novel, the costs of what she has enjoyed is something she needs to face before truly growing.

Elise's mother is deported to Brazil on the eve of her college graduation. Her younger sister is unable to hold the household together and she travels home quickly to reconcile with the childhood friends she left behind. There is a lot of familiar emotions and events related to outgrowing your childhood but Elise needs to also deal with structural racism and the classism highlighted by the ultra wealthy that share her Nantucket home.

I loved learning about Elise with Elise and you will too. A perfect novel for any young woman seeking themselves or any of us that remember those first growing pains. #Wait #GarbriellaBurnham .#Randomhouse

[Lian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading a book by Gabriella Burnham and it was stunning. I picked this book up one weekend day and finished it the same day. The characters are well developed and it’s a beautiful book about who really belongs to a place, class, family, and the bonds that stretch across generations and countries. Thanks to One World publishers and Net Galley for this glorious ARC.

[Jackie Sunday · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an insightful book which draws attention to current immigration hardships in the U.S. within a family.

Elise, 22 years old, was getting ready for her college graduation ceremony when her sister, Sophie, at 18, called her and said her mother, Gilda, was missing. It’s predictable: Gilda, an immigrant from Brazil, was arrested by ICE and now living with her sister where she was raised.

Meanwhile, Elise and Sophie are on their own which is a little hard to believe that they're able to pay the bills which includes rent and utilities for a house on Nantucket. Everyone knows the island is packed with wealthy folks. Elise takes on a job that she had at the beach in high school and Sophie is trying to scoop up tips in the food industry – minimum wage earners.

There are three parts: Home, The Guest and The Main House. It’s reads well as the two sisters are trying to figure out how they're going to survive. But, there are no chapter heads; just breaks. It’s annoying to me if there’s something I want to quickly refer to later such as “phosphorescent jellyfish” which happens to be quite interesting.

Most of us – I would hope – would agree that the immigration laws need to be revised to take in consideration of a parent paying taxes with American children. The story zeros in on wealth versus the working class with a huge gap in between. It has a good flow with the dialogue even though the author excluded quote marks. The characters are believable and it captured my attention from the beginning. Immigration is on the news all the time and is a good topic for reviews.

My thanks to One World and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book with an expected release date of May 21, 2024.

[Jesse Hassinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wait" is a deft melange of coming-of-age and you-can't-go-home-again tropes with the extra added layers of familial deportation and class disparity. Burnham never gets too heavy handed with any of these potentially polemic issues and instead focuses on the characterization of her main characters. Under Bernham's loving writing both Elise, returning to Nantucket Island (where she grew up) after her mother disappears, and her college best friend Sheba, whose mothers own a vacation house on the island, are both shown as flawed and humane with their own separate and sometimes counterintuitive driving forces as they navigate what it means to return to the island after years of being away at college. For Elise, beyond the bitter-sweetness of returning to her sister now that her mother has left them, she is returning as a townie who has escaped; for Sheba her arrival on Nantucket is cutting short a summer in Europe so she can ensure that her spot at the local country club is safe... so quite a different raison d'etre. There are clashes, privileged naiveté, and misunderstandings, but it is all written with compassion both for and between the characters, which is what elevates this book into a serious character study and not just a melodrama.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC Of Wait.

I needed a break from my usual reading material of serial killers, domestic dramas, and backstabbing frenemies so I thought this would be a palate refreshers. so to speak.

** Minor domestic spoilers ahead **

Elise returns home to Nantucket when her little sister, Sophie, informs her their mom is missing.

Eventually, the siblings discover their mother has been deported to Brazil and the sisters spend a summer growing up, learning about each other, and becoming their own person.

I'm not the ideal audience for this story and in the beginning, I couldn't get into it.

Gradually, I liked reading about the sibs spending time together, growing close again, reminiscing about their childhoods, and eventually learning to live apart from their mother.

At the same time, their mother, distraught at being separated from her daughters, establishes a new life in Brazil with her own sister, and reconnects with her estranged father.

When the sibs are evicted, Elise and Sophie crash at Elise's wealthy BFF's summer home and the dichotomy between the haves and have-nots is a not so subtle theme that rears its head throughout the narrative.

Yet, during the course of the summer, the sibs and their mother, an ocean away, learn to adapt to their new circumstances, moving forward with their lives, developing new skills and relationships and discovering resiliency and independence within themselves.

I did think it was pretty lucky Elise's BFF was so wealthy and the sibs had a place to crash.

What if they didn't have somewhere to go?

That would have been interesting to see and opened up a myriad of possibilities for the narrative to go.

Nothing really happens, nothing dramatic, just a lot of reflection and thoughtfulness, and growing up, a coming of age story.

This isn't my type of genre, unless there's a bunch of monsters and zombies chasing the characters around as they reminisce about the good ol' days before monsters and zombies ruled the world.

[Marcia reading past dark · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the day that she is to graduate from college in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Elise receives a phone call from her sister Sophie saying that their mother is missing. When Elise arrives home in Nantucket, she finds that their mother has been sent back to Brazil. After twenty years of living and working in the United States, their mother is deported for missing a hearing with the immigration board.

The book tells a story of the relationship of sisters and of the friendship of college coeds, with a deeper thread that focuses on the failures in the immigration and naturalization system. The book presents a timely message.

[Kelly Pramberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome writing. Loved the relationship between the two sisters. The scenery was great. Interesting story. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

[Claudiaslibrarycard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wait is an emotional novel about two sisters whose mother goes missing. I am a lover of books set on Cape Cod and Nantucket, and this hit many of the notes I expect and want when I pick one of these up.

Set on the island of Nantucket, this story speaks to class dynamics and includes wonderful nature imagery and details. Burnham wrote so well to the divide between summer visitors and tourists and working class year-rounders. With beautiful and emotional details about plovers, an endangered species of the area, this really is a well rounded book. So to move beyond setting, this is a very character driven novel with a few key plot points but no clear climax and dénouement. The sisters, Sophie and Elise, are together again for the first time in four years since Elise has just returned from UNC Chapel Hill. There are clear rifts to repair as a result of Elise never visiting during her four years of undergrad, and when their mother does not come home for days on end the stress rises for everyone.

Elise and Sophie spend much of their time with Sheba, the very rich heiress to the Play-Doh fortune who Elise met at UNC. Each girl has their own baggage and way of interacting with each other and the world, and that's really the meat of this book. In a short number of pages, these characters are so vivid and feel fully formed, ready to come off of the page and into the world.

I had a wonderful time with Wait by Gabriella Burnham and I know I'll be reading her backlist. I highly recommend this one!

Heads up: No quotation marks! However, Burnham's writing style is easy to adapt to and it becomes very clear what is spoken versus internal dialogue.

4.5 rounded to 5 for Goodreads

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have told the story of what so many young people on the cape and islands deal with, but instead it was more of a coming of age story where nothing really happens..? What frustrates me the most about this story was that I expected Elise and Sophie to face any sort of hardships beyond "my friend is shitty" and "my sister's being mean." It's about two sisters with no real life experience having to figure out how to afford to live in an incredibly expensive place after their mother gets deported to Brazil. It should have been intense. It should have been hard to read. But it was just another beach read because don't worry we have a rich friend who can bail us out (being homeless would've been too real?). Maybe I'm biased because I live on Cape Cod and I know what it's actually like, but I was disappointed. I wanted something more realistic. I wanted something I could trick rude tourists into reading so they'd maybe be a little more considerate. But this was not that.

[Stacey E. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not for me. I did not enjoy the writing, and I could not connect with the characters. It honestly was hard to even pick up after I took a break for a few days. From the synopsis, I was really looking forward to reading this, but in the end, it was a miss, and I DNF'd at 35%. Thank you, NetGalley, Random House, and One World, for the opportunity to read and review this advanced copy.

[Natalie Mackay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short but pointless

[Anne Wolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may well be a Four-Star review for others, but the book did not speak to me. Present tense narration is very intrusive to me and distracted from the story.

And the story is about an unusual friendship between two college roommates: Elise, the daughter of an illegal resident from Brazil and the offspring of the Play-Dough fortune heir (Sheba, who has two mothers). Elise's younger sister Sophie has just graduated from high school and Elise from college. The girls live on Nantucket and suddenly find their mother absent. It turns out she has been deported (restoring ties with her sister and father in Brazil)

There is much drinking and partying on the island, particularly after the girls are evicted and move in with Sheba in her mothers' mansion. There are several extraneous characters, Harry and Rahul for example, whose inclusion in the novel escapes me. Sheba is a neurotic rich girl with endless supplies of money.

So is this novel highlighting the tale of friendship, of sisterhood, of the pain of parting from a deported parent? And why does the novel end so abruptly? An acceptance and scholarship for Sophie? And what for Elise? And Gilda, their mother? But at this; point, I did not truly care.

Thanks to NetGalley and One World Publishers for an Arc copy to read and review.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

WAIT is an interesting coming of age story about a young woman, Elise, who is graduating from college. When her mother, Gilda, and sister Sophia, don’t show up for graduation, she contacts her sister and finds out her mother is missing. She immediately flies home to Nantucket and after several days, they discover their mother has been deported in Brazil for not having papers. Sophie, who is just graduating from high school, goes to work while Elise works at her pre-college job for the summer. Gilda is trying to get back to daughters runs into immigration red tape. The girls lose their home because a nosy next-door neighbor told the landlord that the mother whose name was on the lease was gone. Fortunately, Sheba, Elise’s friend from college has a guest house in which they can stay. The relationship between the three girls is interesting. They are continual sexual undertones. Sheba is a “summer” girl and quite affluent. A party gone wrong hurts the relationship between Sheba and Elise. Elise and Sophia must leave the guest house permanently. Sophia goes off to college after being waitlisted. Gilda has found her way back to family in Brazil. Elise is planning to go to Brazil. WAIT is like New England weather. Wait a few minutes and it will change.
Thank you to NetGalley and One World Publishers for this advance copy.

[Lauren Harnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

This novel is a great story about two sisters whose lives are upended when their mother disappears off Nantucket Island where they live. They later find out that their mother was deported back to her home country of Brazil, on the heels of one sister graduating college and the other one graduating high school. The bond they share is intimate and lovely. They end up staying with the college grad’s rich friend in her lush home, and that puts a slight strain on their relationship. Social class issues permeate the friendships and the culture of the Island, between the haves and the have-nots. While there was no major climax or turmoil, the major characters are likable and I felt sympathetic toward them which held my interest.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. "Wait" is a slower read but worth the time. Sisters Elise and Sophie who are young women, with Elise just out of college and Sophie just out of high school, go through a rough period in their lives when their mother Gilda is deported to Brazil. Gilda has lived and worked in the U.S. for over 20 years, rents a home, pays taxes but the past finally catches up with her. Ms. Burnham's writing is tender, showing the love between the sisters who have to figure out their lives much sooner than they thought they would. The book is based in reality and will hit home with anyone who is young and must find their path in life.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two sisters have lived with their single Brazilian Mother in Narraganset all their lives. The elder, Elise, has just graduated from Chapel Hill. The younger, Sophia, has just completed high school. Their Mother has disappeared and when she finally calls they learn ICE has returned her to Brazil. This is the story of that summer, their struggles, their successes, their friendships and follies and their growth. Initially I really didn’t get sufficiently interested in them to get involved with them but after finding myself reading just a bit more time after time I admitted to being captivated . Thanks to Net Galley and Random House for an ARC for an honest review.

[Keyreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming-of-age story about two sisters navigating the world after their mother is deported. I thought this was a beautiful novel. I enjoyed Gabriella Burnham’s first novel It is wood, it is stone. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. I look forward to hearing more from her in the future!

[Melissa W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was sent this book from the publisher and I just could not finish this book. The writing style was just too disjointed for me. Maybe someday I will go back and read it, but I could not do it at this time.

[Julie Guirado · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book. Loved all the characters and their relationships to each other. An easy read that got me to reminisce about being your early 20s while also reflecting on social inequality through various lenses.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the author had made this more of a story. Yes, wait…and wait. Probably a good snapshot of life on Nantucket, with its ultra wealthy enclaves set around regular people trying to make ends meet, and some of the foreign visitors who come to work and end up staying past their visas. Elise and Sophie are the nearly grown daughters of one such immigrant, who found love for a while with an Irish worker who abandoned them to return to Ireland. After more than 20 years of living under the radar of immigration authorities, she is deported by ICE just as her older daughter is about to graduate from college. The girls are on their own while Mom tries to get back legally, though Elise has a wealthy friend who lets them stay at her mansion. The summer happens and there is work and fun and Mom gets a job in Brazil. There’s a party, some hot guys, the wealthy friend has her own family problems, and nothing else really happens.

[Susan Lewallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but I admit it was also lacking a strong plot, which I usually want. Elise and Sophie are the daughters of an undocumented immigrant from Brazil, who has lived on Nantucket for about twenty years, working in the restaurant business. Elise has just finished University in Chapel Hill, where her best friend, Sheba, was a wealthy girl with a summer place on Nantucket. Sophie has just finished high school. When the book opens, their mother has disappeared. The two girls have to take care of themselves over the ensuing summer. As noted, there isn’t a lot of action here. I think I liked the book because I liked Elise. Elise and Sophie are mature beyond their years – responsible and sympathetic characters with an understanding of life that Sheba will probably never achieve. The characterizations are excellent and, in spite of little plot, I kept reading because I wanted to see what happened to the girls.

[Patty Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

I gravitated towards this book due to the synopsis. And the book delivers somewhat, but it was not what I was expecting.

What was I expecting? Maybe something I had not read before. This just felt like the author stuck to something that works and didn’t really push any boundaries.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

[Juliet Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was suuuuch an incredible, compulsively readable (truly couldn’t put it down) & important story about the underbelly of Nantucket, as a place that glimmers and sparkles with overpriced perfection for a tiiiiny percentage of the population at the totally invisible expense of so many others. Seriously soooooooo good.

[Lisa Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Sophie calls her older sister, Elise, to say that their mother is missing, Elise rushes back to Nantucket Island to discover that their mother has been deported back to Brazil. The sisters were both born in America, however, their mother was never granted citizenship as she missed her hearing due to medical issues. After twenty years of living and working in America, their mother still is not safe from deportation.

The book encompasses immigration and wealth inequities equally and true to life. We are given glimpses into the imperfect ways that immigrants are treated and the socioeconomic injustices at play.

This book gives good insight into a broken system while highlighting how those left behind can survive. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a great coming of age story. Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, I was excepting more, but the book is honestly about two girls waiting. Waiting for what comes next. and honestly, so was I.

I received an ecopy of this book via Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own,