Tully

Tully Makker is a tough young woman from the wrong side of the tracks and she is not always easy to like.

But if Tully gives friendship and loyalty, she gives them for good, and she forms an enduring bond with Jennifer and Julie, schoolfriends from very different backgrounds.

As they grow into the world of the seventies and eighties, the lives of the three best friends are changed forever by two young men, Robin and Jack, and a tragedy engulfs them all.

Against the odds, Tully emerges into young womanhood, marriage and a career. At last Tully Makker has life under control.

And then life strikes back in the most unexpected way of all…

Powerful, enchanting, extraordinary, Tully is one of the most exciting debut novels for many years from an astonishing young writer.


Reviews

"In this beautifully written first novel, Simons captures the lives and loves of Tully and her friends Julie and Jennifer in Topeka, Kansas. After her father and brother disappear, Tully's childhood is shaped by an abusive mother. Her wild adolescence culminates when Jennifer commits suicide. Unable to accept the death or admit to grief, Tully seeks consolation at the gravesite, where years later she meets Jack, a former lover of Jennifer. Although married to Robin, she begins an affair with Jack, despite the warnings of her friend Shakee, also one of his former lovers. When Jack wants her to move to California, a lifelong dream of both Jennifer and Tully, this survivor in life must come to grips with past griefs to make a decision. A strong story line with great characterization makes this book hard to put down. A potential best seller, it is highly recommended for public libraries" — Library Journal
"A big, ambitious book whose characters stick in the reader's mind." — San Francisco Chronicle
"Reads fast, like a sudden surge of wind over the plains, and the book's momentum builds to tornado force." — USA Today
"What a lovely and resonant evocation of that first great bond between women-- it's deeply moving." — Anne Rivers Siddons