Getting the Picture Book

“Do you remember that first time we met? It was in the old studio in Brunson Road. How much did we miss, love, by not being together?”
 
In the early 1960s, Maureen Griffiths, married with children, accompanies a friend to a modeling shoot, never intending to be in front of the camera herself. But after meeting photographer Martin Morris, Maureen is transformed—and Martin quickly falls for this simple, straightforward woman who calls herself Mo.

    Forty years later, shortly after Maureen’s death, Martin moves into Pilgrim House, a retirement community, in part because Maureen’s husband, George, is also a resident there. Through letters he continues to write to Mo, Martin reveals a lifetime of tireless devotion to his one true love. He is also determined to figure out why Mo stayed with her difficult, demanding husband. So with the aid of some of the colorful residents of Pilgrim House, Martin delves into the secrets of Maureen’s family—and becomes increasingly entwined in the complicated life that Maureen built to shield herself.

    Told through letters, emails, and other communications, Getting the Picture is an irresistible, charming novel of family secrets, regrets, and abiding love.

Publishers Weekly

Salway (Tell Me Everything) refutes the adage about old dogs and new tricks in this breezy epistolary novel set in a British retirement home. Not that the residents of Pilgrim House don't know plenty of old tricks already: Salway's appreciation of her characters is refreshingly nonpatronizing—her oldsters have rich and naughty pasts, but live in the present, very much alive and eager to gossip, conspire, and seduce. George Griffiths is the archetypal stuffy widower, determined to control the behavior of anyone near him. He's also the only male resident of Pilgrim House until Martin Morris, a photographer who specializes in female nudes, moves in with his cameras and his photo collection. Martin's a schemer who, unbeknownst to George, had an affair with George's wife decades earlier and has been obsessed with her since; he saved all the letters he wrote her but never sent, and continues to write to her about his increasingly menacing plans. Although the epistolary device requires that some key revelations are reported from a distance, relationships and characters evolve nicely in this lighthearted novel about family and lovers and the not-so-lighthearted secrets that separate them. (Apr.)