Gossip Girl author moves on from melodrama with Cobble Hill

Cobble Hill by Cecily Von Ziegesar, Atria

With Cobble Hill, acclaimed Gossip Girl author Cecily Von Ziegesar has brought readers a brand new — and fascinating— cast of characters.

The book follows the lives of four families who live near one another in a wealthy Brooklyn neighbourhood. Tupper is an inventor with an eclectic artist wife who is always disappearing and reappearing as she creates pieces of performance art around New York.

Mandy, the wife of an exrock star, fakes having multiple sclerosis to take a break. Her husband, Stuart, finds himself falling for his son’s school nurse, Peaches, who finds herself falling right back.

Then there is Roy Clarke, a famous author desperately seeking inspiration for his next book, and his wife Wendy, who uprooted her family from England to New York to find herself in a job she loathes.

Cobble Hill is not the scandalous Upper East Side melodrama of Von Zeigesar’s past. It’s a story aimed at adults and is much calmer than what you may expect from the writer who brought you Blair Waldorf. This, however, is not a weakness. Von Ziegesar’s writing style is engaging, light, and fun, and the story is a delight to read.