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Title details for Dear Virginia, Wait for Me by Marcia Butler - Available

Dear Virginia, Wait for Me

A Novel

by Marcia Butler
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A sensitive portrait of a vulnerable yet resilient young woman who, with the help of an inner voice and newfound friends, attempts to find her way at the turn-of-the-millennium Manhattan.
For as long as she can remember, Peppa Ryan has been guided by a benevolent voice in her head who she believes is Virginia Woolf. Though she's an exceptionally bright twenty-year-old, she suffers from crippling low self-esteem and has barely left her parents' ramshackle home in Queens, New York City.

At the turn of the millennium, Peppa is caught between her father's wishes for her to run the family business and her mother's mental illness. In spite of these pressures, she bravely ventures out on her own to start a job at a Wall Street investment firm. But her parents continue to pull strings, insisting she date a handsome plumber in the hopes that she'll abandon her job and return to her roots. Peppa plans to immediately dismiss him, but to her surprise they discover an unlikely bond over a shared love of Virginia Woolf. With the encouragement of her kindhearted boss, his eccentric client, and the voice of Virginia, Peppa gains confidence and begins to thrive in her new life.

Then, when Peppa discovers a betrayal by her family, she suffers a breakdown. And on one crisp and clear autumn morning, as she slowly recovers, Peppa finds herself on the path to reconciliation.
For those who loved Where'd You Go, Bernadette, The Remedy for Love, or And Then We Came to The End, this is a sensitive coming-of-age novel of a fragile yet brilliant young woman who, like Virginia Woolf, is determined to carve her unique path in life.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 6, 2025

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781771684095

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781771684095
      • File size: 1484 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2025

      Butler's (Oslo, Maine) latest follows 20-year-old Peppa Ryan in the early 2000s. Her parents are Irish immigrants living in Queens who admire marriage, their Catholic values, and the trades. As the highly intelligent but unconfident Peppa embarks on a job in an investment firm located in Manhattan's World Trade Center and expands her support systems, she begins to see beyond her parents' wishes. All the while, she is guided by the voice of Virginia Woolf, whose benevolent interjections vary in frequency based on how Peppa is feeling and are delineated on the page in a different font. As her mother has long lived with mental illness, Peppa is sensitive to the optics of hearing voices and has never confessed to anyone about her connection with Virginia. This short page-turner packs in a lot, exploring mental illness, childhood trauma, found family, body dysmorphic disorder, being queer in the United States at the turn of the millennium, and reproductive rights, but it maintains a brightness thanks to Peppa, Virginia, a down-on-his-luck plumber, Peppa's new boss Ivan, and a rock star seeking investment advice, all of whom add dashes of humor, friendship, and hope. VERDICT Butler offers a literary coming-of-age story with the feel of a contemporary romance, which will appeal to a wide swath of fiction readers.--Taylor Skorski

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      April 1, 2025
      The constant voice in Peppa Ryan's head is that of Virginia Woolf. It's there whenever she body-shames in front of the mirror, when she needs calming on her first day at a new job, when her controlling parents harp about marriage and babies. Virginia's wise words underscore Peppa's success at a philanthropic investment firm and formulate an exit strategy for a date set up by her Irish immigrant parents with a young man from Ireland, a plumber. But when Peppa gets pregnant and discovers thousands of dollars withdrawn from her parents' business account for this man, she suffers a mental breakdown, and Virginia goes silent. Peppa has no tools with which to cope with the demands of potential single motherhood and the estrangement from her parents until her boss, Ivan, and Gogo, his boyfriend, a flamboyant former rock star with a passion for cooking, swoop in to give her refuge, love, and support. As her fairy-tale-like name would suggest, Peppa is a winsome and beguiling heroine, and Butler (Oslo, Maine, 2021) treats her experiences of self-doubt and powerlessness with perceptive empathy.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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