The Wedding People

Its a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but shes actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isnt here for the big event. Phoebe is here because shes dreamed of coming for yearsshe hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now shes here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s planwhich makes it that much more surprising when the two women cant stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison EspachsThe Wedding Peopleis ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imaginedand the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.