Title: Hello Beautiful
Author: Ann Napolitano
Publisher: The Dial Press
Publication date: March 14, 2023
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?
Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
Hello Beautiful is a hard book to describe, and in some ways, just as hard to commit to reading — but as I discovered, sticking with it pays off in the end.
The events of Hello Beautiful swirl around William Waters, whom we follow from boyhood through middle age. His life is marked for tragedy from the start — his older sister dies when he’s less than one week old, permanently scarring his parents and leaving him bereft of their love and attention. William grows up lonely, saved only by the relief and belonging he finds on the basketball court.
In college, he meets Julia Padavano, oldest of four sisters in a tight-knit family. Julie is determined to achieve her life plans, which include marrying a successful man and devoting herself to becoming a wife and mother. William has so little belief in himself that he molds himself to whomever he’s with; Julia falls for William and his readiness to be who she needs him to be. His only passion is basketball, but Julia believes he’d make a great college professor, so he follows the path she sets for him — getting married, entering graduate school, starting a family.
Things go disastrously wrong after the birth of their daughter, and a permanent rift severs the Padavano family. Without entering spoiler territory, I’ll just say that William is at the center of the storm, but the relationships between all members of the extended family end up shattered or reconfigured.
There’s a great deal of sorrow and pain in Hello Beautiful, but real loveliness as well. The Padavano sisters have such closeness and are so interconnected that the changes within the family feel tragic, even though some pieces of the relationships survive and end up even stronger.
I often feel overwhelmed by books that introduce a large family all at once, as it can be daunting to tell the characters apart or remember which personality goes with which person. Not so here — each of the four sisters is distinct and memorable, and they all shine in their own ways. The sisters compare themselves to the March sisters of Little Women (even declaring “I’m Beth today” on days when they’re not feeling well), and by the end, it’s fairly clear which Padavano matches which March girl. I’ve seen some reviewers refer to Hello Beautiful as a Little Women retelling, which I’d disagree with. Yes, there are a few parallels which the sisters themselves call out, but this is a very different book as a whole.
Hello Beautiful is big and sprawling, and for the first third or so, takes a while to truly get going and develop a focus. Much of the story feels anecdotal, and the narrative approach — with alternating chapters dedicated to William, Julia, Sylvie, and other characters — adds to the sense of scattered storytelling. However, when catastrophe strikes midway through, the plot itself sharpens, and the emotional impact truly kicks in.
I took issue with some of the characters’ perspectives on certain events, and disagreed with the commonly held interpretation of what had happened (being intentionally vague… again, no spoilers from me!) — and yet, I can appreciate that each character has their own worldview that shapes their version of events and gives them what they need to carry on and move forward.
The book’s emphasis on family, love, and friendship is quite lovely, and this is what leaves a lasting impression. There’s so much depth to the relationships depicted in Hello Beautiful, as well as the recognition that people’s impact on others can be vast and unseen, and that we can never truly know just how important someone is to so many others.
I’ll be thinking about Hello Beautiful for quite a while to come, and just wish I had others to discuss it with! This would make a great book club selection — there’s so much food for thought.
Hello Beautiful is highly recommended. Don’t miss it!
Bookshelf Fantasies 