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Solstice
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Published on Aug 04, 2026 | 7 Hours 52 Minutes
A brilliant but restless dancer discovers the true meaning of love and intimacy through the ebbs and flows of her marriage in this exquisitely written novel—from the bestselling author and psychologist whose feminist classic, In a Different Voice, revolutionized our understanding of women’s lives.
“A literary tour de force . . . an irresistible read.”—Daphne Merkin
“A remarkable work by a remarkable writer.”—Gish Jen
“A deeply felt narrative of a couple’s push-pull dynamic over decades.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Boston, 1969. Eve, a dancer whose feelings are expressed through the body and movement, senses an inexplicable distance growing between herself and her husband, Gabe, a journalist and father of her two children. Feeling lost and alone, she begins an affair; Gabe detects it immediately and begins one himself. Yet somehow they find their way back to each other, and when Eve gives birth to a daughter, their marriage becomes vital again.
Years later, when Gabe returns from a reporting trip to the Middle East and Berlin, Eve again perceives something is wrong in her marriage. He has always had a darkness she could not fathom—deep psychological scars from his childhood, when Gabe escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport.
Amsterdam, 1991. Newly separated from Gabe, Eve has accepted a fellowship to choreograph a dance inspired by the story of Adam and Eve. When a colleague introduces her to a new translation of the ancient text, Eve begins to redefine the way she thinks about women, men, and relationships—and, perhaps, to see another path back to her marriage.
In this emotionally riveting novel, Carol Gilligan draws on her unsurpassed psychological understanding of women’s lives to explore a new vision of love and intimacy. Sweeping across decades and continents, Solstice is a provocative and profound portrait of what it takes to truly love another.
“A literary tour de force . . . an irresistible read.”—Daphne Merkin
“A remarkable work by a remarkable writer.”—Gish Jen
“A deeply felt narrative of a couple’s push-pull dynamic over decades.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Boston, 1969. Eve, a dancer whose feelings are expressed through the body and movement, senses an inexplicable distance growing between herself and her husband, Gabe, a journalist and father of her two children. Feeling lost and alone, she begins an affair; Gabe detects it immediately and begins one himself. Yet somehow they find their way back to each other, and when Eve gives birth to a daughter, their marriage becomes vital again.
Years later, when Gabe returns from a reporting trip to the Middle East and Berlin, Eve again perceives something is wrong in her marriage. He has always had a darkness she could not fathom—deep psychological scars from his childhood, when Gabe escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport.
Amsterdam, 1991. Newly separated from Gabe, Eve has accepted a fellowship to choreograph a dance inspired by the story of Adam and Eve. When a colleague introduces her to a new translation of the ancient text, Eve begins to redefine the way she thinks about women, men, and relationships—and, perhaps, to see another path back to her marriage.
In this emotionally riveting novel, Carol Gilligan draws on her unsurpassed psychological understanding of women’s lives to explore a new vision of love and intimacy. Sweeping across decades and continents, Solstice is a provocative and profound portrait of what it takes to truly love another.
Author
Carol Gilligan
Carol Gilligan, whose landmark classic In a Different Voice revolutionized the study of girls, women, and human psychology, is a University Professor at New York University. She is the author of the novel Kyra and a number of books on psychology, women’s and girls’ development, and listening to how people speak about their lives. She did her undergraduate work in English literature at Swarthmore and her graduate work in psychology at Harvard, where she was the first Graham professor of Gender Studies and taught for over 30 years. In 1996 Time magazine named her one of the 25 most influential Americans and in 2025 she received the Kyoto Prize in arts and philosophy. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her husband and the very old dog of their youngest son.
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