Hello Beautiful is a 2023 historical fiction novel and the fourth book by American writer Ann Napolitano.
When he was six days old, his older sister Caroline died of a fever and cough and was found dead in her crib.
William shatters his knee during a basketball game and is no longer able to play, triggering a depression he hides from Julia.
Charlie visits Cecelia and her newborn daughter Izzy in the hospital after she gives birth, he dies of a heart attack just after leaving.
While those events unfold, Julia fails to see the growing divide between her and William as he hides his progressive depression.
Sylvie works as a librarian and William becomes a physical therapist at Northwestern University and eventually for the Chicago Bulls.
Julia maintains contact with her mother Rose in Florida and occasionally exchanges postcards with Cecelia and Emeline.
"[2] Napolitano wrote the novel during the pandemic and after her father died, she said she "was grateful to find some comfort, and even glimmers of hope, inside the fictional world that became Hello Beautiful".
[3] She also said the emotional notes mimicked that of her last novel Dear Edward, which were "kindness, grief, our deep human need for connection.
Bruce Holsinger of the New York Times said that Napolitano "resists the easy satisfactions of the sentimental and never settles for simple answers to emotional predicaments faced by her characters.
"[1] Diane Cole of The Washington Post described the book as "a tender tearjerker... this one chronicles life's highs and lows with precision.