Loved this book!! I have recommended to so many friends since finishing. I loved the present day and looking back and also the retelling of how each family member remembers the events.

This book started strong and had such potential. A mystery was presented at the beginning, but there were so many unrelated stories that made the book drag on and on. Parts 1 and 5 told the complete story.

This was such a unique title and I am so grateful to have come across it on Netgalley. I read this author's previous work - The Possible World - which was amazing. I didn't think she could possibly top that but she did! WHAT COULD BE SAVED is an incredible story detailing a child that goes missing. I don't want to say too much more because I feel that it's best to know as little as possible before diving into this book.

Enjoy!

This literary fiction/family drama was told in dual time lines.
The expatriate Preston family are living in Bangkok 1972, raising their three children, Bea, Phillip and Laura.
Dad Robert is thought to be working on a dam building project, secretly he really works for American Intelligence.
Mom Genevieve oversees her large house and servants, hostess to the best parties.
One day, after Phillip's judo lessons, there is a mix up over who is to pick him up. He waits outside, and is not seen again.
Though the local police investigate, it leads them nowhere.
Washington, DC, 2019, Genevieve has dementia. Bea lives nearby with her husband and twin boys. Laura is also close by, an artist struggling with her work. Robert passed away in 1980.
Laura receives a phone call from someone claiming to be her brother Phillip, missing for forty years.
She goes back to Bangkok to find out if it's really him.
The story goes between the two times, as the many secrets of the family are revealed. By the end, we finally find out what happened to Phillip.
Laura and her family are genuine and original characters that captivated me.
This was an exquisitely told emotional family story that kept me enthralled with it's evocative and poignant beauty.
Thank you Atria Books for the e-ARC via NetGalley.
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars.

Schwarz is obviously a gifted writer with an exceptional writing style.

There were many things that reminded me of the book What We Were Promised, such as living as an expat in an Asian country, multiple timelines, and the complicated family dynamics. The book centers around the disappearance of Philip. We learn about the life of the family in Thailand before he vanishes and then his reappearance decades later.

The author describes the life of a wealthy American family in Thailand vividly; a lifestyle filled with servants and drivers and many luxuries that would not be possible in the US. The plot is propulsive, and secrets are revealed little by little, keeping the reader on the hook and making this 450-page book go by in a flash.

After reading this author’s previous novel, The Possible World, back in June of 2018, I’ve been waiting with baited breath to read her work again. I wasn’t disappointed.

This is a more complex novel, with multiple narrative voices, yet it was so adeptly composed, so skillfully written, that the complexity fell to the wayside and I was enthralled with this damaged family and so, so eager to learn their secrets. I particularly enjoyed the way that the author drip-fed the Preston family’s secrets… one… by… one.

I’ll be honest, when I first read that part of the book was set in Bangkok, Thailand, (not one of my usual favorite settings), I was a bit put off, but I shouldn’t have doubted for a minute that it would mar my reading enjoyment.

It was difficult to pick a favorite character. None of them were particularly likeable, yet they were written in such a way that you could empathize with all of them. The mother, Genevieve, seemed so privileged, so beautiful, so ‘entitled’, yet so unhappy. I despised the way she willy-nilly dismissed her servants and how she cavalierly and coldly treated them on the whole, yet she redeemed herself eventually. Her husband too, was hard to like yet you could feel for him. He felt trapped in the life he had chosen for himself, had OCD, and was deeply unhappy. He was an excellent father, yet he was also self-centered and seemed insular and distant.

The eldest sister, Bea, was such a bully that you couldn’t warm to her as a child. As an adult she redeemed herself tenfold.

Philip’s story was absolutely heartrending, yet somehow he seemed the most content of the lot of them. Separated from his family for forty-seven years…

This hefty novel encompasses themes of guilt, loss, sibling rivalry, unhappy marriages, adultery, missing children, and the trials of living abroad. The pace is slow at first but picks up as the story progresses.

The reader can learn much from the pages of this novel. It is didactic, yet not in a preachy way. Lessons like living in the moment; how one small, seemingly inconsequential event or action, when added to other seemingly inconsequential events or actions, can have profound and unfathomable effects on countless people for years to come. How even the smallest choices have consequences.

Highly recommended to fans of family sagas and literary fiction – the kind of story that you can disappear into – and have a huge book hangover when its last pages are turned.

Amazing story!! I am in love with this story! The writing was really wonderful. It's quick and witty, but it's forceful and emotional. The characters are just lovely. You know them. You feel their pain and their joy. This is a must read!

This is a complex family drama, spanning decades and two countries Washington DC, USA and Bangkok, Thailand. It goes back and forth between past and present. So many family secrets . It has both well developed characters and a well paced plot.
For me the two things that held it back from 5 stars was it took quite some time to get "into" it and also while I liked the characters I didn't love any one of them.

I think my expectations were much higher going into this one than they should have been. I thought it was a good story but just didn't work for me for some reason.

What Could Be Saved by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz was my first novel by this author. I’m not sure how to review this book. I think the writing is wonderful as is the story, but I just couldn’t seem to want to read it. I found that I kept putting it down for something else.
I definitely will try to pick this up again. Maybe it will catch my attention better next time around.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

What Could Be Saved by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz is told in two different storylines, one is modern-day DC and the other is Bangkok in 1972. Philip went missing in Bangkok in 1972 and in 2019 his sister receives a message saying he's alive and she needs to come get him. The mystery of what happened to Philip s woven through the two storylines and leaves you riveted. Read and enjoy!

What Could Be Saved is a complex but fascinating story of family dynamics and I loved it so much! It grabbed me from the start and didn’t let go until I closed the book. Set in two distinct settings, there’s mystery, family secrets, betrayal, heartbreak and hope. The ending is satisfying and the author’s writing wonderful. I look forward to her next book. Thank you Atria and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was completely unputdownable. What a fascinating story and I couldn’t wait to figure out what had actually happened to Phillip. The author did a wonderful job of describing life in Bangkok. I also liked the way she smoothly transitioned between the past and present day. The Preston family was so well characterized, flaws and all. I really enjoyed this family saga.

What Could Be Saved is a family drama that alternates between two time periods and settings, 1972 in Bangkok and 2019 in Washington.
1972: Robert Preston decides to take a secret service position and move his wife Genevieve and three young children to Bangkok. What was supposed to be one year turns into several, leaving his wife unhappy and tensions arise. When Phillip, their youngest child goes missing, and all leads run dry, the family moves back home but Genevieve never stops searching.
2019: Laura Preston receives a call indicating that her brother may have been found. Despite the doubts of her sister, Laura heads time Bangkok to learn that it is her brother and returns him home, hoping her mother with dementia is able to understand he’s been found.

I thought the story was great, the plot well put together, full of family secrets and mystery. However, I found I didn’t really love any of the characters. With the way the story is told, they come across as flat, making it difficult to make any real emotional connection to them. Typically, that would lead me to dislike a book, however I did enjoy the storyline and found that I wanted to keep reading to find out the mystery behind the brothers disappearance.

In the 1970s, the Preston family moves temporarily to Bangkok for Robert's job. After a couple years, their 8-year-old son Philip disappears and the family ends up having to move back to the US when he is never found. 38 years later, Philip's younger sister Laura gets a random email saying her brother has been found. Bouncing back and forth in time, we slowly learn what happened to Philip and the rest of the Prestons in this sweeping, multi-decade family drama.

This book was atmospheric, complex, and redemptive. It explores sibling relationships, family dynamics, and expatriate attitudes toward a native population. The ending is satisfying without tying everything up perfectly. I loved this and recommend it for fans of The Most Fun We Ever Had, Americanah, and The Vanishing Half.

I had What Could Be Saved on my TBR list prior to its publication as I was intrigued by the partial setting of the book in 1972 Bangkok so was pleased to receive a digital review copy from NetGalley.

What Could Be Saved has a dual timeline alternating back and forth between Bangkok, Thailand in 1972 and Washington, DC in 2019 telling the story of the Preston family - Robert, Genevieve and their three children Bea, Phillip and Laura. The story begins in 2019 when Laura, the youngest Preston who is now an artist living in DC, is contacted on behalf of a man who claims to be her brother, Phillip, who disappeared while the family was living in Bangkok in 1972 when he was 8 year's old. Laura makes a spur-of-the-moment decision to travel to Bangkok to confirm that this is her brother and bring him home. As the present day storyline progresses, we are also transported back to 1972 and slowly learn what happened to Phillip.

The novel is probably best-described as a family drama as it revolves around the various familial relationships among the Prestons - husband/wife, parent/child and sibling/sibling. We see the impact of lies and family secrets as well as the consequences - and the question of whether a family can recover from the kind of trauma that the Prestons lived through with the disappearance of their son/brother. We also see how relationship patterns and grievances between siblings established as children can be carried well into the future - even to middle age with Bea and Laura - something that is likely familiar to most of us if we examine our own relationships with siblings.

This was a quick read for me as I had trouble putting the book down mostly due to the suspense of the slowly drawn out narrative surrounding what happened in Bangkok in 1972 but also with how the family would deal with the aftermath in 2019. The story is compelling yet heartbreaking at times as there are a number of serious issues addressed including kidnapping, sex tourism, forced sex work and racism.

I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written page-turner by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz and would rate it a 4.5 star read.

Included in https://www.gonewiththefamily.com/2021/03/spring-2021-reading-list.html

Wow! This is one of the best books I have read so far in 2021. I loved the premise - Phillip, 8 years old, disappears without a trace while his American family is living in Bangkok in the early 1970's. Despite searching for him, he is never found and assumed dead by his loving family. One day in 2019 his sister, Laura, receives a message from someone claiming to be her brother who is now in his 50's. With little to no proof and despite her loved ones wishes, she boards a plane to Bangkok to find her missing brother. The story is told in alternating timelines and we see this heartbreaking story slowly unfold. This is beautifully written with understandably broken characters. Excellent book, I highly recommend checking it out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is definitely a character driven atmospheric drama! If that if your type of book, pick this one up! I love dual timelines in books so I appreciated that. There were some slow parts that felt like space fillers but overall, I would recommend this book to others!

Taking place in Washington, DC in 2019 and Bangkok, 1972, this novel follows the Crawford family. In 2019, Laura is an artist who’s success has diminished. Her art dealer is trying to get her to focus on something new while her long term boyfriend has just proposed and she doesn’t feel the need to be married. He’s is married with teenage twin boys, and their mother, Genevieve, seems to be sliding in to mental decline.
The family moved to Bangkok in 1968 when Robert Preston, the father of the family, was recruited to work there. A one year commitment turned in to four and Genevieve had the expat life reluctantly mastered. And then seven year old Philip Preston disappeared.
After moving back to the US, Genevieve spent years traveling back and forth searching for him and setting up a charity in Thailand. And then one day in 2019, Laura received a call from someone claiming to have Philip. After a brief Skype call and seeing him, Laura immediately drops everything to go back to Bangkok and get him.

@lieseschwarzwriter is a new author to me. I was immediately drawn in by her writing. The dual timeline was done seamlessly and I loved how this book flowed. The anguish of losing a child is unfathomable to me and the narrative really conveyed just how heavily this weighed on everyone involved.
This was a beautifully written, emotional and suspenseful page turner and I highly recommend this if you enjoy family drama, character driven, and/or a good suspenseful novel.
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If you love dynamic family stories as much as I do, look no further. This book followed the Preston family from their times living in Thailand in 1972 to living in Washington, DC in 2019. Laura is a struggling artist and her sister Bea has become the matriarch of the family since their mother, Genevieve, started exhibiting symptoms of dementia. When Laura gets a call that their brother Philip, who has been missing for 50 years since they lived in Thailand, she knows she has to go like she always does every time someone thinks they have found him. But when she meets him, she has even more questions.

Throughout this book we learn about the involvements of each family member and what they have done and how they have changed since Philip disappeared. This book is emotional and heartbreaking at times, but shows the true strength of a family. This book was very long and took me a while to get through, but I do see the significance of the different plot threads and scenes for the message of the story. The writing was so beautiful and I loved the detailed descriptions of Thailand and their house there.