Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Invisibles: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Invisibles: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Invisibles: A Novel
    Ebook387 pages5 hours

    Invisibles: A Novel

    By Cecilia Galante

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In the vein of Meg Donohue and Jennifer Close, comes Cecilia Galante’s adult debut about the complicated and powerful bonds of female friendship—a compelling, moving novel that is told in both the present and the past.

    Thrown together by chance as teenagers at Turning Winds Home for Girls, Nora, Ozzie, Monica, and Grace quickly bond over their troubled pasts and form their own family which they dub The Invisibles. But when tragedy strikes after graduation, Nora is left to deal with the horrifying aftermath alone as the other three girls leave home and don’t look back.

    Fourteen years later, Nora is living a quiet, single life working in the local library. She is content to focus on her collection of “first lines” (her favorite opening lines from novels) and her dog, Alice Walker, when out-of-the-blue Ozzie calls her on her thirty-second birthday. But after all these years, Ozzie hasn’t called her to wish a happy birthday. Instead, she tells Nora that Grace attempted suicide and is pleading for The Invisibles to convene again. Nora is torn: she is thrilled at the thought of being in touch with her friends, and yet she is hesitant at seeing these women after such a long and silent period of time. Bolstered by her friends at the library, Nora joins The Invisibles in Chicago for a reunion that sets off an extraordinary chain of events that will change each of their lives forever.

    The Invisibles is an unforgettable novel that asks the questions: How much of our pasts define our present selves? And what does it take to let go of some of our most painful wounds and move on? 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9780062363527
    Unavailable
    Invisibles: A Novel
    Author

    Cecilia Galante

    Cecilia Galante, who received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont, is the author of eightyoung adult novels and a children’s chapter-book series. She has been the recipient of many awards, including an NAIBA Best Book of the Year, and an Oprah’s Teen Read Selection for her first novel, The Patron Saint of Butterflies. She lives in Kingston, Pennsylvania with her three children.

    Read more from Cecilia Galante

    Related to Invisibles

    Related ebooks

    Coming of Age Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Abandoned

      Jun 3, 2021

      Abandoned
      5 min read

    • Article

      I Do So, Like Durian

      Jun 10, 2021

      The 504-streetcar grated against the curve of the tracks as it entered the station. It pulled to a stop directly in front of Holly. The doors opened with such a clunk that she stepped back, treading on the toes of the person behind her. She was block

      11 min read

    • Article

      Entering Through the Side Door

      Aug 18, 2021

      THIRTEEN years ago I attended my very first writers colony and began living a lie. The lie wasn’t to do with the worry writers often feel—that rude, wicked thing we call impostor’s syndrome, a fear that we aren’t qualified to put our thoughts onto th

      10 min read

    • Article

      Step Back

      Jun 10, 2021

      Beth never liked doctors’ offices—the white sterile surfaces, the antiseptic smell, the degrees pretentiously hung on the wall. Bob’s gently putting his hand on hers was comforting, but still she hated the waiting. Finally, Dr. Wilkins strode in, all

      20 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      Child’s Play

      Mar 10, 2023

      The blackmail began in the boys’ locker room. It started with Travis Downing’s least favorite person, Rory Paxton, cackling like a hyena behind his iPhone camera. Rory loved taking photos of boys while they were changing, making sure to capture just

      9 min read

    • Article

      Lording

      Jun 14, 2022

      It’s 4:38 P.M., eight minutes after I usually go home, but now I’m rooting around under my chair cushion, double-checking my shirt pocket, hunting for an unmarked baggie of white bars, which I shouldn’t have left in my office, which I shouldn’t have

      17 min read

    • Article

      Her Dark Material

      Feb 7, 2021

      Paradise Beach, Barbados, in the 1980s. The powdery sand is the palest pink, the water is the regulation limpid blue, the coconut palms sway, but behind the tourist postcard lies another world, a mostly black world of poverty, violence and desperatio

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Lyrical Journey

      Apr 12, 2018

      He is too shy to tell that his lyrics have become so popular that even young Pakistanis are humming them and uploading them on YouTube. Most questions put to this 27-year-old, who recently received the prestigious Yuva Sangeet Natak Akademi for his

      1 min read

    • Article

      Long Live Samantha Jones

      Jun 6, 2018

      Long Live Samantha Jones
      5 min read

    • Article

      Friend Or Foe?

      Aug 24, 2023

      Sitting on the grass beside my girlfriend Grace, I spotted a familiar face approaching from across the park. ‘Can I join you?’ Chelsea, then 17, smiled, plonking herself down. It was March 2018 and I’d been with Grace, then 16, for six months. I was

      4 min read

    • Article

      Who Was That Girl?

      Apr 21, 2021

      Who Was That Girl?
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Cave Of Adventure

      Jun 10, 2021

      You walk home from work through Citadel Park. This fine October afternoon is just warm enough that you are comfortable in the light cashmere cardigan and skirt you bought for exactly this kind of weather, an elegant dark green outfit that goes well w

      11 min read

    • Article

      Out And Proud!

      Oct 26, 2021

      Out And Proud!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Watership Down

      Nov 6, 2017

      Watership Down
      6 min read

    • Article

      April Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)

      Apr 5, 2021

      April brings new books from Haruki Murakami, Helen Oyeyemi, Elizabeth McCracken, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and a whole lot more. The post April Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month) appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Cherie Jones

      Jan 7, 2021

      Cherie Jones
      3 min read

    • Article

      In His hands

      Oct 28, 2021

      In His hands
      2 min read

    • Article

      State Of Grace

      Apr 13, 2022

      State Of Grace
      8 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Rose Street

      Nov 10, 2021

      “Don’t tell anyone what happened to Tyler.” I stop running just long enough to turn, hoping for more instructions, but Leyton is already sprinting up his porch steps and through his front door. “Should we—” He slams the door behind him. Even from whe

      20 min read

    • Article

      The Other Child

      Dec 1, 2018

      The Other Child
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Shanthi Sekaran

      Dec 19, 2017

      You know when your friend writes a play or belts out a song or makes a working beehive out of marzipan and you’re like, “Oh, good God”? I read most of this novel sitting stick-straight, my mouth agape, quietly cursing. The post A Year in Reading: Sha

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Bryan Washington

      Dec 3, 2018

      1. This year, I read a lot on my phone. That’s a habit I’ve picked up from working gigs where you stand a bunch (watching kids on a swingset, watching adult children park their cars). Some folks don’t vibe with that, but those folks don’t pay my bill

      4 min read

    • Article

      Lily King

      Apr 25, 2020

      Award-winning and bestselling author Lily King’s latest book, Writers & Lovers, is set in the Boston area during the 1990s. This cleverly written novel features a compelling protagonist, a struggling 31-year-old writer named Casey. Readers follow Cas

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ferlinghetti at 100: An Appreciation

      Mar 22, 2019

      He’s our longest-living ambassador of the written word, a relic from a time when a certain type of person treated books as sacred objects rather than as products that could be sold at a profit. The post Ferlinghetti at 100: An Appreciation appeared f

      3 min read

    Reviews for Invisibles

    4/5

    53 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      absolutely outstanding . i actually cried. thats how good this book is.
    • 5/5
      I rarely leave reviews, but this book was SO GOOD. It is full of such real emotion, and the end was completely unexpected. Unexpected, but good. It left me sobbing, and then smiling.
    • 4/5
      While at first I was thinking about 3.5 stars for this book, I decided a book that keeps me reading straight through deserves the full 4th star! Four women reunite after 15 years apart. As teenagers living at Turning Winds, a home for girls, Nora, Ozzie, Monica and Grace bond and form their own club called The Invisibles. Nora stays behind in Willow Grove working in the library while the other three leave town for fresh starts. Their reconnection is the solid base of this story.
    • 3/5
      There is a home for boys not far from my mom and dad's house. It is a large brick building set well back from the road. brick pillarA stately arch flanks the driveway and live oaks draped with Spanish moss give the whole place a bit of a gothic feel to it as you drive past it. I never lived in the house that my parents live in now so I only know the small amounts I've gleaned about the house itself and nothing really at all about the inhabitants. How old they are, where they go to school, the circumstances that led to them living in this home, all of these things are a mystery. In fact, I can't begin to imagine the lives these boys lead and what is in their hearts. But Cecilia Galante, in her first book for adults, The Invisibles, has imagined something similar: the lives of four girls who met in a girls' home as teenagers, their lives then, the pasts that shaped them, and their lives as adults.Nora is a librarian who collects first lines from books. Her dog is named Alice Walker and is the most important thing in her life. She's a loner who rarely lets people into her life. But on her birthday, she gets a phone call from the past. As a teenager, Nora had lived in Turning Winds, the local home for girls, and was a part of a group of four girls who dubbed themselves The Invisibles. When Ozzie calls her that morning, they haven't been in touch for fifteen years, not after something terrible happened and they all went their separate ways. Now Grace, another of their group, has tried to commit suicide and is asking for them all. They were once each other's family and she needs them. With misgivings galore, Nora, who has generally barricaded herself off from everyone since the demise of the Invisibles, agrees to go with Ozzie and Monica to spend a weekend with Grace to see if there's anything they can do to help.Each of the four women has a trauma in her background, one terrible enough to have landed her in the girls' home and in each case, their pasts are still influencing their presents. Bigger even than that though, is the shame over circumstances they could not control that still causes each woman to keep quiet about her own personal unhappiness, tragedy, fear, etc. As the women start to reconnect, not only do their barriers start to come down and their secrets start to emerge, but their shared past slowly comes to light. The emotional scars of the past are connected with the unresolved issues of the present as the mystery of everything that happened that seminal night is slowly revealed.Nora is the main focus of the story but Ozzie, Grace, and Monica's stories are all told in their turn as well. Their pasts are both similar and wildly different. All of them were failed somehow by their mothers and they have struggled with their personal worth as a result. That each of the characters has something so terrible in her past is understandable given where they initially met each other but sometimes the novel feels as if one more problem might sink it. The tone of the conversations between these long estranged friends who once meant the world to each other quickly reverts back to the intimate confessions they once shared, highlighting their past connection as each others' teeenaged lifeline. But the problems of the women are definitely adult problems no matter how rooted they are in childhood and adolescence. The inclusion of the rituals of the club sharing their wishes and dreams is a nice touch and makes what they've endured more personal and human. The early pacing is a bit slow but it is hurtling along by the end as the reader wants to hear the truth of everything from that last night. A novel of friendship and the family we create, this will make you question how much of our pasts, good and bad, define us.
    • 5/5
      Turning Winds Home for Girls takes in troubled and orphaned girls. This is where four teenage friends meet and form a strong bond over their unique status of having no parents present in their lives, no visits, no contact, and no phone calls. Nora, Ozzie, Monica and Grace form The Invisibles, a family of their own, at least until graduation. Self-proclaimed ring leader of the group, Ozzie, decides that they should all forget and move on after tragic events after graduation. Ozzie, Monica and Grace move out of town and on to bigger and better, or so it seems; meanwhile Nora stays in town with the Shadow of the Turning Winds Home. Nora has a job at the library, her dog Alice Walker, her collection of favorite first lines from books, and all the pain of the secrets she has kept from her childhood. Nora desperately wishes her friends would reunite again, and with one phone call from Ozzie fifteen years later, The Invisibles rise again. This is a heartwarming story of friendship, pain, redeeming yourself and moving on. Each of the four girls carries around an amazing load of baggage from their childhood. I loved The Invisibles group, they form as a wonderful therapy. The rules are amazing and what the girls try to do for one another shows true companionship, but as children they can only make themselves feel better at the moment and not actually solve any of the deep-rooted issues in their lives. Each of the girls was very interesting and with their own personalities, Nora was my favorite of the group quiet, reserved, observant and I loved her first line collection. It was interesting to see how each woman’s baggage and personality affected them as adults and how they came to eventually deal with it. The emotions were real and raw with issues that many women might face, abusive relationships, body insecurities, sex, postpartum depression, money and abortion. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.