When the Road Curves: A Novel

The life we choose. The people we hold close. The family we make.

At thirty-six, Nora returns to Oakland after a decade of living fast in New York City, ready to take stock. Marriage, children, a meaningful career—she’s considering all of them, but she’s no longer sure which possibilities reflect what she actually wants. Coming home is a chance to find out.

Then she meets Paul, a magnetic singer-songwriter whose passion and charm draw her into an intense romance. The connection is powerful, but so is his volatile temper. As their relationship deepens, Nora finds herself caught between the pull of love and the independence she isn’t ready to surrender.

When her best friend, Linda, is diagnosed with AIDS, Nora’s questions about the future take on a new urgency. With her romance unsettled and someone she loves facing an uncertain future, she must reconsider what she is willing to accept, what she cannot bear to lose, and where she truly belongs. The answers may lead her toward a very different understanding of family—and a life she couldn’t have planned.

Set in the Bay Area during the 1990s, When the Road Curves is a poignant novel about complicated love, enduring female friendship, and the families we create for ourselves when the future refuses to unfold as expected.

About the Author

When the Road Curves is Marianne Lonsdale’s debut novel. Her personal essays and poetry have been published in print anthologies and online journals including The New York Times, Literary Mama and Pulse. She’s an alumna of the Community of Writers and The Napa Valley Writers Conference and is a frequent reader at San Francisco’s Litquake. She’s committed to youth literacy efforts, volunteering with 826 Valencia and the Oakland Literacy Coalition. She lives in Oakland.