For those looking for a glamorous, post-WW2, historical fiction novel for spring and summer, I have great news for you! Natalie Jenner, the bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, is back with a new novel called Every Time We Say Goodbye!
If you fell in love with Jenner’s writing, storylines, and characters when you read her first two novels, then add this third installment to your TBR list. Though Jenner’s books can be read as stand-alone stories, they each tie to the others.
This time, we follow actress and playwright Vivien Lowry, one of the original (fictional) members of the Jane Austen Society, to 1950s, post-war Italy to pursue her film career.
Book Details
The bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls returns with a brilliant novel of love and art, of grief and memory, of confronting the past and facing the future.
In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry’s last chance for a dramatic career.
With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.
As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.
Audiobook
If you prefer listening to your historical fiction, BAFTA Award-winning actress Juliet Aubrey has narrated the audiobook of Every Time We Say Goodbye.
“Aubrey won the BAFTA for her performance as the quintessential Dorothea Brooke in the BBC’s 1994 production of Middlemarch and has appeared in dozens of television, film, stage, and radio programs over her impressive career, most recently winning the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Actress in 2022. Aubrey has a voice full of dusky cadence, emotion, and subtlety, and brings to the audiobook a mastery of dialect and intonation.”
I highly recommend listening to this one! I’ve been listening, and I love the play between the English, American, and Italian accents. You can listen to an excerpt from the audiobook for Every Time We Say Goodbye here:
Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner, audiobook excerpt [Chapter Three] by MacmillanAudio (soundcloud.com)
Order Your Copy
Every Time We Say Goodbye releases May 14, 2024. You can purchase the book online or in any of your local retail bookshops. If you’d like a hardcover copy, the details are below:
Order HERE
One of Bookbub’s Best Historical Fiction Books for Spring!
One of the CBC’s Most Anticipated Canadian Novels this Spring!
“Jenner provides an insightful view into Italy’s postwar reckoning, and she imbues the novel’s many celebrity cameos – including actresses Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida―with authentic flair. Jenner’s fans will love this.” ―Publishers Weekly
“With warmth and compassion…lush descriptions, vivid period detail, and fascinating personalities, Jenner’s cinematic narrative is shot through with both pain and hope.” ―Shelf Awareness
About the Author
NATALIE JENNER is the author of the international bestseller The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls. A Goodreads Choice Award runner-up for historical fiction and finalist for best debut novel, The Jane Austen Society was a USA Today and #1 national bestseller, and has been sold for translation in twenty countries.
Born in England and raised in Canada, Natalie has been a corporate lawyer, career coach and, most recently, an independent bookstore owner in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs. Visit her website for more.
Jane Austen News from Natalie
Finally, it’s my great joy to announce that Natalie has a 4th upcoming novel slated for 2025, tentatively titled Austen at Sea, just in time for Jane Austen’s 250th celebration!
This new novel, once again about Austen’s fans, is set in 1865 Boston and Hampshire. Here’s a brief introduction:
“In Austen at Sea, Henrietta and Charlotte Stevenson, the only children of a widowed Massachusetts supreme court judge, are desperate to experience freedom of any kind, at a time when young unmarried women are kept largely at home. Striking up a correspondence with Jane Austen’s last surviving sibling, ninety-one-year-old retired admiral Sir Francis Austen, the two sisters invite themselves to visit and end up sneaking on board the S. S. China, a transatlantic mail packet steamship heading to Portsmouth.”
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