FALLING TOGETHER
What if saying hello to an old friend meant saying good-bye to life as you know it?
It’s been six years since Pen Calloway watched her best friends walk out of her life. And through the birth of her daughter, the death of her father, and the vicissitudes of single motherhood, she has never stopped missing them.
Pen, Cat, and Will met on their first day of college and formed what seemed like a magical and lifelong bond, only to see their friendship break apart amid the realities of adulthood. When, after years of silence,
What if saying hello to an old friend meant saying good-bye to life as you know it?
It’s been six years since Pen Calloway watched her best friends walk out of her life. And through the birth of her daughter, the death of her father, and the vicissitudes of single motherhood, she has never stopped missing them.
Pen, Cat, and Will met on their first day of college and formed what seemed like a magical and lifelong bond, only to see their friendship break apart amid the realities of adulthood. When, after years of silence, Cat—the bewitching, charismatic center of their group—e-mails Pen and Will with an urgent request to meet at their college reunion, they can’t refuse. But instead of a happy reconciliation, what awaits is a collision of past and present that sends Pen and Will, with Pen’s five-year-old daughter and Cat’s hostile husband in tow, on a journey across the world.
With her trademark wit, vivid prose, and gift for creating authentic, captivating characters, Marisa de los Santos returns with an emotionally resonant novel about our deepest human connections. As Pen and Will struggle to uncover the truth about Cat, they find more than they bargained for: startling truths about who they were before and who they are now. They must confront the reasons their friendship fell apart and discover how—and if—it can ever fall back together.
- William Morrow Paperbacks
- Paperback
- October 2012
- 384 Pages
- 9780061670886
Buy the Book
$14.99
About Marisa de los Santos
An award-winning poet and bestselling author with a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing, Marisa de los Santos lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her husband, the children’s book author David Teague, and their son and daughter. She’s the author of the bestsellers Love Walked In and Belong to Me.
Praise
“The mix of perfectly realized personalities and genuine emotion make this a winner.”—Publishers Weekly
“Readers who enjoy the connection forged through the ties of family and friendships should find much to savor in de los Santos’s comforting, leisurely paced novel.”—Library Journal
“A satisfying novel about friends rediscovering one another—and confronting unwelcome truths—at their college reunion.”—People
“[Falling Together] is a good, solid read that succeeds in being both funny and heartbreaking. De los Santos has a knack for best-friend banter and stays true to the emotions involved in letting go of treasured relationships.”—Booklist
Discussion Questions
Describe Pen, Will, and Cat. What were they like as students and how has time changed who they are? All three of them have serious issues involving their fathers. Talk about how their relationships shaped their lives and their outlooks. How did each cope with their emotional wounds? Did you like any one character more than another? Why?
What drew Pen, Will, and Calt together, and what was it about each of them that created their magical bond? Why did they lose touch? Would they have come together eventually? What is it like when they are finally united? Would you go across the world to find an old friend?
What makes friendships work between people? Why is it often difficult to sustain friendships as we get older? How can we sustain them? Is it sometimes better to let a friendship die? Why? Have you ever enjoyed a friendship as special as that of the trio in the book? How did it begin? How did it impact your life? Can a person live without close friends?
Why do Pen and Will decide to go to the reunion after they receive Cat’s email? What are they hoping for in attending? Can we turn back time and reunite in a fulfilling way or are the people we are today just too far removed from our past selves? How do they react to each other when they finally meet up?
When they meet at the reunion, Pen suggests they sum up the missing years in four sentences. Think about an old friend you haven’t been in contact with for a while. What would you say in four sentences to describe your life in the time that has passed? Try it with members of your reading group. Think about what has happened since your last meeting and express it in a few sentences.
Talk about Jason. What are your impressions of him? What about Pen? Will? Cat? Why did Cat marry him? Did your feelings about him change as you learned more about who he was and what happened to him? What do Pen and Will learn from being with him? What does he learn from them?
Pen tells Will about her mother’s homecoming after her father’s death, and her surprise at how happy her mother seems. “’She was in India and Tibet, right?’ he said. ‘Maybe she had some kind of spiritual awakening. Or maybe she’s just glad to be home.’ Will could see how a spiritual awakening and coming home to Pen and Augusta could amount to the same thing.” What do you think this means?
Pen has some interesting notions about love. She sees it as an “imperative.” How does this view color how she sees love in her own life and in the lives of those around her—Will, Cat, Jason, Patrick, her mom? Would you say she’s afraid of love?
Marisa de los Santos uses the image of falling in several ways throughout the novel. “There were people who could live on their own and be happy, and then there were people like Pen and Margaret who needed the falling together, the daily work of giving and taking and talk and touch.” Discuss this example of falling. Identify others in the novel and explore how they relate to the characters.
Love, friendship, family, commitment, parenthood, loss, grief are many of the themes the novel touches upon. Choose one or two and trace how they are explored and resolved through the course of the story in an individual character’s life.
When Pen, Will, and Jason meet Cat’s extended family in the Philippines, Pen is enchanted. “You like it here,” Will tells her. “It’s a Pen kind of place.” Why was Pen so taken by Cat’s family?
While looking for Cat, Pen has her “jack-fish epiphany.” Explain what insights she gleans, or as her colleague, Amelie describes it, “All is One and All is Different.” Have you ever had a similar kind of “knowing moment” and when did it happen?
What finally gives Pen and Will the courage to share their feelings? Why does it take so long? Do you think they will stay in touch with Jason? Will Pen and Will last?