Wait

A Novel

By: Gabriella Burnham

Narrated by: Gisela Chípe

A young woman reunites with her teenage sister in their childhood home on Nantucket Island after their mother is deported in this alluring coming-of-age novel that “movingly tackles serious issues in one of America’s premier vacation spots” (NPR).

“Gabriella Burnham knows . . . the Nantucket of undocumented immigrants and broken families. . . . This tender novel allows us to rejoice when tiny windows of opportunities begin to open.”—Imbolo Mbue, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK PRIZE

Elise is out dancing the night before her college graduation when her younger sister, Sophie, calls to tell her that their mom is nowhere to be found. Elise leaves on the next flight back to her childhood home, Nantucket Island, for the first time in nearly four years.

The sisters soon learn that their mother was stopped by police on her way home from work and deported to São Paulo, Brazil. Intent on bringing her mother back, Elise stays and secures the same job she had in high school: monitoring endangered birds. Meanwhile, her best friend from college, Sheba—a gregarious socialite and heir to a famed children’s toy company—reveals that she has inherited her grandfather’s summer mansion on Nantucket. Elise’s worlds collide as she confronts the emotional and material conditions that have fractured her family, as well as the life in Brazil that her mother has had to leave behind.

Told with penetrating insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Wait is a story about a family swimming against the social currents that erode bonds: housing precarity, immigration systems, and inherited wealth. But it is also a story about love, wit, and sisterhood, and how two sisters cling to each other in the midst of cataclysmic change, all the while dreaming about a better future.

Critic reviews

“Burnham leaves little doubt about how much she understands the people who populate her novel. . . . Her compassion for them is evident—and, yes, that includes the affluent ones who come across as arrogant and snobbish. . . . There is no easy way out for any of them, but this tender novel allows us to rejoice when tiny windows of opportunities begin to open.”—Imbolo Mbue, The New York Times Book Review

“Wait movingly tackles serious issues in one of America’s premier vacation spots. It is a commendable accomplishment.”—Heller McAlpin, NPR

“Wait is beautiful, heartfelt, and transcendent—a carefully crafted portrayal of motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship put to the ultimate test. I found myself caring deeply about these characters and wanting to know desperately what was going to happen to them next. Wait is also the best account of year-round Nantucket Island that I’ve ever read.”—Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award–winning author of In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, and Travels with George

“Wait is a limpid and lovely, powerful and affecting novel of family ties, sisterhood’s tender mercies, and the material conditions that shape our lives. Gabriella Burnham has given us a novel to remember, one that takes us to Nantucket and beyond—and we should gladly go.”—Sarah Thankam Mathews, National Book Award–nominated author of All This Could Be Different

“Wise and richly layered, Wait is on one level a tender coming-of-age story set on the beautiful beaches of Nantucket, and on another a powerful inquiry into who gets to lay claim to American soil and call it home. Burnham’s nuanced exploration of friendship and sisterhood, inherited wealth and housing insecurity, birthright and disenfranchisement will stay with me. I could not put this book down and continued to think about it long after I emerged from its propulsive pages.”—Qian Julie Wang, author of Beautiful Country

“Imbued with hope and loss, Wait is a stunning examination of homecoming and familial devotion. Burnham’s prose is sensuous and exacting. She writes about sisterhood, daughterhood, and friendship with deep wisdom and exquisite precision.”—Kayla Maiuri, author of Mother in the Dark

“As I read this novel, I could almost feel the Nantucket sea breeze whipping against my face and, at other times, caressing me.”—Daphne Palasi Andreades, author of Brown Girls

The Other Side of Nantucket Life and a great story

I loved this book. Set primarily on Nantucket, it tells the story of college best friends from vastly different worlds. One, a Nantucket year rounder, is the daughter of an undocumented immigrant who'd worked hard
and raised her 2 daughters on the island but is deported right before the graduation. The other is a gay woman from a liberal, extremely wealthy family with an opulent summer home on the island. The book opens right before college graduation, and focuses on the post-graduation summer when both girls end up unexpectedly on Nantucket. It's a tale of friendship tried by class differences and privilege, the relationships between a now deported immigrant mother & her 2 daughters, and the sister's relationships and challenges as they navigate homelessness after their childhood home is destroyed to be rebuilt for the gentrified island. The author deftly weaves a sophisticated coming of age tale about friendships between those with and without privilege, family love, laying bare the societal tensions underlying the interpersonal.

Just OK

The storyline had potential but it appeared to be written for a YA audience. Some of the characters felt like stereotypes to a degree. In addition, I couldn't figure out why the protagonist and the rich girl ever became friends. As for the performance, it was decent but the rich girl's voice was annoying and added to the YA feel. Maybe I'm just not the right demographic for this book? It's not literature but it had its moments.