All the Time in the World by Caroline Angell
Twenty-something Charlotte majored in music composition in school but decided that dog-eat-dog world was not for her after being betrayed by her mentor. So she becomes a nanny in NYC for Gretchen and Scotty and their two little boys, Matty and George. She's content until a tragedy upsets the equilibrium of the family and she finds herself holding everything together for everyone--and losing herself in the process.
You really do get a good sense of Charlotte's increasing mental and physical exhaustion as she becomes almost solely responsible for the care and well-being of these two little boys without a break for any kind of personal life.
The story is not told in sequential order but rather in terms of time before and after the tragic event. So you have to pay attention to the subheads as you're reading ("two weeks after" or "one year before"). I really liked this character and this story except for the relationship between Charlotte and Scotty's womanizing brother Patrick. Charlotte seemed too smart to want to have anything to do with him, but her isolation probably contributed to the course of action she took.
One of my favorite scenes is near the end of the book when Charlotte remembers the day George spoke for the first time. He had never spoken and his parents and teachers were getting increasingly concerned that something was really wrong. But a wise doctor told Gretchen that George would speak when he really wanted to communicate something. And so he did.
You really do get a good sense of Charlotte's increasing mental and physical exhaustion as she becomes almost solely responsible for the care and well-being of these two little boys without a break for any kind of personal life.
The story is not told in sequential order but rather in terms of time before and after the tragic event. So you have to pay attention to the subheads as you're reading ("two weeks after" or "one year before"). I really liked this character and this story except for the relationship between Charlotte and Scotty's womanizing brother Patrick. Charlotte seemed too smart to want to have anything to do with him, but her isolation probably contributed to the course of action she took.
One of my favorite scenes is near the end of the book when Charlotte remembers the day George spoke for the first time. He had never spoken and his parents and teachers were getting increasingly concerned that something was really wrong. But a wise doctor told Gretchen that George would speak when he really wanted to communicate something. And so he did.
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