--- product_id: 103962814 title: "A Spool of Blue Thread: A Novel" price: "AED 7" currency: AED in_stock: false reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.ae/products/103962814-a-spool-of-blue-thread-a-novel store_origin: AE region: United Arab Emirates --- # A Spool of Blue Thread: A Novel **Price:** AED 7 **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** A Spool of Blue Thread: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** AED 7 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ae](https://www.desertcart.ae/products/103962814-a-spool-of-blue-thread-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Clock Dance comes the story of four generations unfolding in and around the lovingly worn house that has always been the Whitshank family's anchor. • MAN BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE “Absorbing and deeply satisfying.” — Entertainment Weekly "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon ...” This is how Abby Whitshank always describes the day she fell in love with Red in July 1959. From Red’s parents, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to the grandchildren carrying the Whitshank legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, the Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate an indefinable kind of specialness, but like all families, their stories reveal only part of the picture: Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. Review: Few authors do family dynamics as well as Anne Tyler... - I've been a fan of Anne Tyler for many, many years. In my opinion, there are few authors who can consistently weave compelling, moving stories about both the seemingly mundane and the more dramatic moments families experience. Apparently Tyler has said that A Spool of Blue Thread, her 20th novel, will be her last. I tried not to let that fact influence my expectations or color my perceptions of the book. Abby Whitshank has known her husband Red for as long as she can remember. They grew up in the same Baltimore suburb, and she can even remember the summer day in 1959 that she fell in love with him. Through the years the couple has lived in the stately old house his father built (a house that at times meant more to him than his entire family), raising four children and having their share of wonderful memories as well as arguments, frustrations, sadness, and struggles. "The disappointments seemed to escape the family's notice, though. That was another of their quirks: they had a talent for pretending that everything was fine." Although their relationship has grown a bit more cantankerous as they have aged, and following Abby's retirement from social work, both she and Red know they would be lost without each other. But after a series of health problems affect the two of them, their younger son Stem (aka Douglas), his wife, and his family move back into the house with Red and Abby, ostensibly to help take care of them, which doesn't sit too well with either of them. It also doesn't please their older son Denny, the one child who has caused the most friction in their lives. Denny, too, moves in to help. A Spool of Blue Thread is the story of the joys, angst, and frustrations that are a part of family dynamics. It's a look at the secrets we keep, the lies we tell, what we say and what we don't, and how there are always people in your family you don't always understand. It's also a bit of a multi-generational love story, as the book not only looks at Abby and Red's relationship both at the start and in the present, but also looks at the relationship of Red's parents, Junior and Linnie Mae. I have always loved Tyler's writing, and her use of language and storytelling is in fine form once again. Her characters are quirky and a little eccentric, but they have a lot of heart, and you really get drawn into their lives. I enjoyed this book a great deal, although it took a while for me to warm up to the section about Junior and Linnie Mae, because I felt that Junior was a fairly unlikeable character, although Tyler gradually unveiled his depth. I wouldn't necessarily count this among Tyler's best, but it's another example of why she is one of the most enduring and celebrated writers of our time. I hope that she changes her mind and shares her talents with the world again, but if not, we have 20 wonderful novels to enjoy again and again. And for that I am truly grateful. Review: A Satisfying and Well-Crafted Family Saga from the Master - Anne Tyler's 20th novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, is a departure of sorts for her. While it explores the themes of family dysfunction familiar to fans of Tyler's work, she widens the lens in this multi-generational family saga. The Whitshanks seem like a family everyone can admire. Red is a second-generation home builder who owns a construction company. Abby, his wife, is a retired social worker who cannot resist trying to fix everybody with whom she comes into contact. The present-day action in the novel centers on the failing health of Red and Abby, who are in their early 70s. Red suffers a heart attack and is beginning to go deaf. Abby suffers from occasional memory loss and is prone to wandering the neighborhood while her family searches for her. Concerned about the safety of their parents, the siblings rally around them. The loyal son, Stem, who is not a Whitshank by birth, his do-gooder wife, Nora, and their children move in with the Whitshanks. When their rootless and unpredictable son, Denny, shows up to pitch in with his parents' care, it stirs smoldering hostilites in the family. The Whitshanks' spacious, well-appointed home on Bouton Road serves as both a character and a metaphor for this family, in which appearances and myths mask secrets and resentments. Junior, Red's father, built the house to his exacting standards for a wealthy family, the Brills. Through a bit of chicanery, he convinced the Brills to sell the house to him. Like a lot of Tyler's characters, Junior learns that when he attains what he craves, it doesn't make him happy. This is a topic Tyler has explored throughout her body of work--the restlessness that inflicts family members as they sacrifice their ambitions and their individuality in the service of family harmony. In this novel, a catastrophic event is the trigger that Tyler uses to send the narrative back in time. Tyler peels back the layers of the Whitshank family, first by exploring the events that led to the relationship between Red and Abby. There is a beautifully rendered scene in which Red wins Abby's affections away from a rebellious boyfriend. There is a passage about Red's father, Junior, who is entrapped by a precocious 13-year-old girl into a relationship that causes him to flee North Carolina, but eventually brings about their marriage. There is also a quiet battle waged between Junior and his wife over the color of a porch swing he has lovingly restored for her. These types of passages, which date all the way back to the Great Depression, are not typical in Tyler's novel, but there is a comon thread of wishes, aspirations, pretensions, and deceit. In the end Tyler provides a glimmer of hope that Denny might turn his life around, but, like life, the finale is ambiguous. This is what i like about Tyler's endings, a true-to-life quality. Ths is one of the most ambitious and satisfying of Tyler's novels, and that is saying a lot. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #71,181 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #423 in Literary Sagas #830 in Family Saga Fiction #969 in Saga Fiction | ## Images ![A Spool of Blue Thread: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Q4aSRsY0L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Few authors do family dynamics as well as Anne Tyler... *by L***R on February 14, 2015* I've been a fan of Anne Tyler for many, many years. In my opinion, there are few authors who can consistently weave compelling, moving stories about both the seemingly mundane and the more dramatic moments families experience. Apparently Tyler has said that A Spool of Blue Thread, her 20th novel, will be her last. I tried not to let that fact influence my expectations or color my perceptions of the book. Abby Whitshank has known her husband Red for as long as she can remember. They grew up in the same Baltimore suburb, and she can even remember the summer day in 1959 that she fell in love with him. Through the years the couple has lived in the stately old house his father built (a house that at times meant more to him than his entire family), raising four children and having their share of wonderful memories as well as arguments, frustrations, sadness, and struggles. "The disappointments seemed to escape the family's notice, though. That was another of their quirks: they had a talent for pretending that everything was fine." Although their relationship has grown a bit more cantankerous as they have aged, and following Abby's retirement from social work, both she and Red know they would be lost without each other. But after a series of health problems affect the two of them, their younger son Stem (aka Douglas), his wife, and his family move back into the house with Red and Abby, ostensibly to help take care of them, which doesn't sit too well with either of them. It also doesn't please their older son Denny, the one child who has caused the most friction in their lives. Denny, too, moves in to help. A Spool of Blue Thread is the story of the joys, angst, and frustrations that are a part of family dynamics. It's a look at the secrets we keep, the lies we tell, what we say and what we don't, and how there are always people in your family you don't always understand. It's also a bit of a multi-generational love story, as the book not only looks at Abby and Red's relationship both at the start and in the present, but also looks at the relationship of Red's parents, Junior and Linnie Mae. I have always loved Tyler's writing, and her use of language and storytelling is in fine form once again. Her characters are quirky and a little eccentric, but they have a lot of heart, and you really get drawn into their lives. I enjoyed this book a great deal, although it took a while for me to warm up to the section about Junior and Linnie Mae, because I felt that Junior was a fairly unlikeable character, although Tyler gradually unveiled his depth. I wouldn't necessarily count this among Tyler's best, but it's another example of why she is one of the most enduring and celebrated writers of our time. I hope that she changes her mind and shares her talents with the world again, but if not, we have 20 wonderful novels to enjoy again and again. And for that I am truly grateful. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Satisfying and Well-Crafted Family Saga from the Master *by C***T on May 7, 2015* Anne Tyler's 20th novel, A Spool of Blue Thread, is a departure of sorts for her. While it explores the themes of family dysfunction familiar to fans of Tyler's work, she widens the lens in this multi-generational family saga. The Whitshanks seem like a family everyone can admire. Red is a second-generation home builder who owns a construction company. Abby, his wife, is a retired social worker who cannot resist trying to fix everybody with whom she comes into contact. The present-day action in the novel centers on the failing health of Red and Abby, who are in their early 70s. Red suffers a heart attack and is beginning to go deaf. Abby suffers from occasional memory loss and is prone to wandering the neighborhood while her family searches for her. Concerned about the safety of their parents, the siblings rally around them. The loyal son, Stem, who is not a Whitshank by birth, his do-gooder wife, Nora, and their children move in with the Whitshanks. When their rootless and unpredictable son, Denny, shows up to pitch in with his parents' care, it stirs smoldering hostilites in the family. The Whitshanks' spacious, well-appointed home on Bouton Road serves as both a character and a metaphor for this family, in which appearances and myths mask secrets and resentments. Junior, Red's father, built the house to his exacting standards for a wealthy family, the Brills. Through a bit of chicanery, he convinced the Brills to sell the house to him. Like a lot of Tyler's characters, Junior learns that when he attains what he craves, it doesn't make him happy. This is a topic Tyler has explored throughout her body of work--the restlessness that inflicts family members as they sacrifice their ambitions and their individuality in the service of family harmony. In this novel, a catastrophic event is the trigger that Tyler uses to send the narrative back in time. Tyler peels back the layers of the Whitshank family, first by exploring the events that led to the relationship between Red and Abby. There is a beautifully rendered scene in which Red wins Abby's affections away from a rebellious boyfriend. There is a passage about Red's father, Junior, who is entrapped by a precocious 13-year-old girl into a relationship that causes him to flee North Carolina, but eventually brings about their marriage. There is also a quiet battle waged between Junior and his wife over the color of a porch swing he has lovingly restored for her. These types of passages, which date all the way back to the Great Depression, are not typical in Tyler's novel, but there is a comon thread of wishes, aspirations, pretensions, and deceit. In the end Tyler provides a glimmer of hope that Denny might turn his life around, but, like life, the finale is ambiguous. This is what i like about Tyler's endings, a true-to-life quality. Ths is one of the most ambitious and satisfying of Tyler's novels, and that is saying a lot. ### ⭐⭐⭐ Pulling thread from a yarn *by E***F on January 20, 2016* When does yarn become thread? The story is a yarn that rambles over a century or so but not in chronological order yet in a pleasant manner. I read a note before starting that Irish writer Roddy McDowell (?) thought Anne Tyler is one of the best writers in the English language. That seemed a bit over the top - not that Roddy McDowell is the greatest arbiter of taste. But, this book and the way of its telling, is a bit like Roddy McDowell's only one of whose books I've read. It takes a while to get into this book. The block for me was the mother character who seemed to have a mild case of passive aggression. No wonder her children are a bit off kilter – which makes it all a yarn of an ordinary family. The story floats around her family and her husband's parents and, principally, the location of the house on Boulton Road. Her son, Denny, is, perhaps, the other important character. He doesn't fit the mould of the family and is bit dissolute. Right from the beginning I liked him. (By the By - Anne Tyler is a woman writer who DOES know how to write men!). Denny comes and goes in the story. None of his siblings 'get' him, and he senses that he doesn't 'get' himself. Yet at the end he finds the end of the thread of the blue spool - so the metaphor of the mess of the yarn and Denny are linked and he sort of in the end gets hold of the thread to pull from the yarn. Maybe he’ll sort out his life... Ah la Roddy McDowell, Tyler writes well. A lot of people do. But the rhythm of her style in this book and the soft fug of the story - the woolly yarn - as well as the well drawn characters make this a sort of warm book bits of which will stay with you and make you want to read the book again in a few years. For the whole of the work I'd give it Excellent - a 3. Oh - there is one fabulous laugh out loud moment in the book - a fantastic ironic moment. Watch out for the Chihuahua. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ae/products/103962814-a-spool-of-blue-thread-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.ae/products/103962814-a-spool-of-blue-thread-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Arab Emirates* *Store origin: AE* *Last updated: 2026-08-01*