My Name is Henrietta Rose by Barbara de la Cuesta

Once a famous hostess in foreign capitals, Henrietta Rose, felled by drink

loses family and health and ends up in a HUD subsidized apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Despite her losses she is presently giddily sober in the basements of AA and sets about a series of dinner parties to recover her lost family.

Henrietta Rose is part of a trio of novels set in the city of Waltham, of which the Manhattan Review writes:

“… an intriguing and surprising novel that shakes up any conceived notion of what a contemporary work should be.

Barbara de las Cuesta was challenging me to step outside of my comfort zone, a little box in which I was not even aware I had been sitting. I pushed through, accepted the challenge, and found beneath the surface a whole new world I had been missing out on! …The way their individual strands stick out, and yet, at the same time, blend together, created such a beautiful work of tapestry of literary elegance.

You must have an open mind and a ready heart for this novel, and I would most definitely recommend that you check this out. …the contemporary novel of the ages and a soon-to-be classic…

–Lauren Stafford,  Manhattan Review of Books