"A funny, poignant and revealing novel that’s become a huge word-of-mouth hit in the US.
How do you prove you're not an alcoholic?
Hildy Good has reached that dangerous time in a woman's life - middle-aged and divorced, she is an oddity in her small but privileged town. But Hildy isn't one for self-pity and instead meets the world with a wry smile, a dark wit and a glass or two of Pinot Noir. When her two earnest grown-up children stage 'an intervention' and pack Hildy off to an addiction centre, she thinks all this fuss is ridiculous. After all, why shouldn't Hildy enjoy a drink now and then?
But as the story progresses, we start to see another side to Hildy Good, and to her life's greatest passion - the lies and self deceptions needed to support her drinking, and the damage she causes to those she loves. When a cluster of secrets become dangerously entwined, the reckless behaviour of one threatens to expose the other, with devastating consequences."

This was another pleasant vacation read. I started reading it only because a film adaptation will be made soon with Meryl Streep and Robert de Niro, but I liked it maybe more than expected. The title was translated “Ora de Aur” in Romanian (The Golden Hour).

“If the wife decides she doesn’t like a place, nobody stays.”

“So it’s like a sunset, the golden hour?” “No, it’s before the sun sets. Or right after it rises. Just that first or last hour of light, just like this. The atmosphere is very… rare and unusual. It all has to do with the purity of the light, the angle of the sun and the way it hits the horizon. The light is sort of filtered. ”

“The golden hour. Haven’t heard that since the war.” “Really, you guys knew about the golden hour in Vietnam?” “Yeah… it’s a medical term […] it had to do with gettin’ medical care to a patient in the first hour after he was hurt. There’s this critical hour, well, more or less, after a major injury when, if you don’t get medical help then, your chances of survivin’ go way down.”