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Shop nowWhat Could Be Saved
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Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Liese O’Halloran Schwarz has pulled off a remarkable feat - she was written a suspenseful novel that explores the characters and their lives so well, that you forget the 'thing' you are waiting to hear explained... and when it comes, there is such grace in the pacing, it feels deeply gratifying. I moved from day to night to morning with the book as close as I could keep it - finding myself putting off anything I had to do to be able to read more. More and more a 'fresh' story or plot seems hard to come by, but I have never read anything quite like What Could Be Saved. That, in itself, is fantastic. ”
— Kira • Merritt Bookstore
Bookseller recommendation
“Wow. What a riveting read! Part family saga, part mystery, What Could Be Saved is just extraordinary. It is a moving, powerful story of loss and regret, loyalty and redemption. Schwarz’s crisp, lyrical prose lays bare the emotional journey of each member of this unforgettable family. These beautifully drawn, tragically flawed characters will remain with me long after turning the last page.”
— Anderson McKean • Page and Palette
Bookseller recommendation
“Readers of What Could Be Saved should budget a day for when they have finished reading, just to sit and process this incredible story. Liese O'Halloran Schwarz has given us a powerful and crushing novel about a little boy who disappears while his family is living in Bangkok only to resurface decades later. The slow build of the tangled characters rises to a soul-wringing end that will take some time to recover from.”
— Mary • Skylark Bookshop
When a mysterious man claims to be her long-missing brother, a woman must confront her family’s closely guarded secrets in this “delicious hybrid of mystery, drama, and elegance” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Beatrice as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers.
Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers in a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand.
Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family broken by loss and betrayal, and “a richly imagined page-turner that delivers twists alongside thought-provoking commentary” (Kirkus Reviews).
Liese O’Halloran Schwarz, a former emergency medicine doctor, published her first novel Near Canaan while still in medical school. She is also the author of the acclaimed novel The Possible World and the forthcoming What Could Be Saved. She currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.