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Laws of Love and Logic

Laws of Love and Logic

A Novel

About the Book

A STUNNING DEBUT NOVEL FROM JENNA BUSH HAGER’S NEW VENTURE, THOUSAND VOICES

A woman finds herself torn between her first love and her devoted husband in this extraordinary debut novel that asks the question: Can one heart hold two great loves?

In the serene town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Lily Webb is deeply in love with a charismatic boy, a college-bound quarterback whose spectacular athletic talents are matched only by his fierce devotion. But their dreams of a life together are cut short one night in 1977 when his passionate protectiveness leads to an irrevocable choice—one which tears them apart and leads Lily down a path of heartbreak from which she may never recover.

Lily has already known the sting of loss, beginning with the death of her mother—a tragedy that left deep scars on both her and Jane, her gifted younger sister. Jane seeks escape in the abstract world of mathematics and quantum mechanics; that is, when she can keep the demons that fuel her addictions at bay. As the years pass, Lily buries her twin griefs deep in her heart, finding solace and a new beginning with Marshall Middleton, a renowned ornithologist whose love is as steadfast as the migration patterns he studies. Yet, the shadows of her past linger.

When the boy who was once everything to Lily reemerges, she struggles with questions around that terrible night in high school. Can she reconcile the wild wonderment of her first love with the comfort and safety of her second? Laws of Love and Logic explores love's enduring power and the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness and redemption.
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Praise for Laws of Love and Logic

“At once sweeping and intimate, Laws of Love and Logic is a gorgeous meditation on roads not taken. Debra Curtis is not afraid to explore big questions about love and loss, but always with tenderness.”—Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

“Laws of Love and Logic resonated so deeply with me. It’s the best thing I’ve read in years: a magnificent, spellbinding love story with characters I’ll be thinking about for a long time. I was utterly enthralled by it.”—Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country

“A captivating debut about love, loss, and the many ways in which the past bleeds into the present, set against a backdrop of 30 thirty years worth of American social progress and shifting expectations for women . . . Throughout it all, Lily wrestles with her love for two very different men, and is sustained by the unbreakable bond she shares with her brilliant but deeply complicated sister, Jane. I will be thinking about them both for a long, long time.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs and Friends and Strangers

“A sparely written but powerfully moving portrait of first love, and of the people who remain part of us no matter what life brings . . . I adore a story that spans a long time, as this one does, and I especially love a story that, when I finish, leaves me with a feeling of hope. I look forward to whatever Debra Curtis writes next.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes

“Set against the quiet ache of lost chances and the lingering shadow of a shared tragedy, Laws of Love and Logic is a sharply observed, deeply felt novel about the lives we build, the loves we choose, the compromises we endure—and the rare and complicated gift of getting to ask ‘what if’ one more time.”—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company

“Debra Curtis writes fearlessly and wisely about family, marriage, addiction, faith, and redemption, and her soulful characters never take the easy way out. The motherless sisters in her debut novel Laws of Love and Logic grow up in the face of problems that have no solutions, where the way forward is simple but never easy: love unconditionally, try not to hurt anyone, and brace yourself for the next loss, the next joy. Curtis is an author you can trust.”—Bonnie Jo Campbell, bestselling author of The Waters
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Thousand Voices Series

Liar's Dice
Beneath
Laws of Love and Logic
Conform

About the Author

Debra Curtis
Debra Curtis is a retired professor of cultural anthropology at Salve Regina University, where she specialized in gender and sexuality. This is her first novel. She is the mother of grown-up twin girls and lives in Rhode Island with her husband and her English bulldog, Harry, who is the star of much of her TikTok content. More by Debra Curtis
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