After reading about how wonderful this book is, and seeing its fabulous placement in the bookstores, I bought a copy for both my mom and I, thinking it would be great. After all, the premise is orginal, compelling...But neither of us could finish it. I made it to chapter 5 and my mom made it only to chapter 3. The protagonist, Susie, goes off on so many unimportant tangents, and the narrator (Susie, again) is portrayed to be omniscient--delving into everybody's thoughts--which I found hard to believe, and a bit irritating.Kudos to the book for the original storyline, but, for us, it was way too difficult to maintain interest in the storyline with all of the fluff.I'm happy that Sebold has been able to enjoy tremendous success with her debut novel--the dream of every aspiring author--but I found myself extremely disappointed, and I would not recommend the book, especially in hardcover.