{"product_id":"the-half-life-rachel-beanland-9781668115398","title":"The Half Life","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eFlorence Adler Swims Forever \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe House Is on Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel set on a remote Italian island about a navy wife's reckoning with power, love, and the price of staying silent in the Atomic Age.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"A captivating, whip-smart novel about love, loyalty, and a woman torn between two lives. I utterly adored it.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Clare Leslie Hall, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eBroken Country\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eWhen twenty-three-year-old Eileen O'Malley meets charismatic naval officer Paul Archer in a Charleston department store, she doesn't expect to fall so hard, so fast. But Paul is funny and ambitious, and soon, Eileen's got a ring on her finger and is following him to the tiny, sun-drenched Mediterranean island of La Maddalena, where Paul will be heading up Radiological Controls aboard a submarine tender. In La Maddalena, Eileen joins a makeshift community of navy wives who are hell-bent on making the island feel a little more like home. But for Eileen, whose brother died in Vietnam, \u003ci\u003ehome\u003c\/i\u003e is a loaded word, and as she settles into life on the island--taking Italian lessons and learning to make \u003ci\u003eculurgiones\u003c\/i\u003e--she begins to love the place for all the ways it is not like where she comes from. Still, it doesn't take long for Eileen to be confronted with the complexities of being an American abroad. The decision to send nuclear-powered subs into the La Maddalena Archipelago was a contentious one, and the U.S. government is doing whatever it can to ensure that the island--not to mention all of Italy--doesn't go communist in the next election. When Italian activists and scientists begin to sound the alarm about possible nuclear contamination in the water, the island erupts in a series of protests, made worse by the ongoing mishaps of the U.S. Navy. Soon, Eileen's marriage falters and her loyalties begin to shift as she is drawn into a web of secrets--and to a local journalist who forces her to imagine a life beyond the one she's been handed. Atmospheric, sexy, and quietly defiant, \u003ci\u003eThe Half Life \u003c\/i\u003eis a story of love, complicity, and awakening--of one woman forced to choose between loyalty to her husband and country and to the Italian locals who show her the high cost of American exceptionalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Rachel Beanland\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1668115395\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781668115398\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Simon \u0026amp; Schuster Audio\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/14\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e CD","brand":"Rachel Beanland","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":48460473041151,"sku":"9781668115398","price":55.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_fe52127f-93bd-4db1-a5b1-5bd06d7a5c67.jpg?v=1777414988","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-half-life-rachel-beanland-9781668115398","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}