4 1/2

First there were Gazala and Samir, French Algerians in Paris during World War II, being raised as siblings by Gazala’s father who taught them to be survivors. Gazala goes to work for infamous–and extremely complicated–writer Colette, where she becomes first an observer and then a participant in resistance activities. Colette sends Gazala to the US, where she befriends the Jewish Cohen sisters, Anne and Alma, the beginning of a life-long friendship, or more correctly, the forming of a found family based on the sisterhood of these women.

Amy Bloom gives us I’ll Be Right Here as a series of interwoven short stories, if you will, that leap about through the years, moving back and forth, told in different POVs, with the latter being those of the younger generation. Unfortunately, I felt so enthralled and invested in Gazala’s Paris episode with Colette that I felt a bit of a disappointing jolt with the POV and location changes. However, that didn’t linger–although I do have to say the wartime scenes with Gazala and Colette, the intrigue and interactions were some of the most memorable in the novel. Also, the structure could also leave the reader feeling a tad lost, which is unfortunate with a novel that has so very much to offer.

I’ll Be Right Here introduces us to many different complicated relationships: Anne’s marriage to blond Protestant Richard, which dissolves into divorce after Anne falls in love with his sister Honey. Sweet Alma’s big-as-the-whole world love for her kind Izzy Taubman. Gazala’s life long love for Samir who was raised as her brother. And then their children, some also found like Bea. Yes, the situations are frequently complicated but they never feel overly so as if time has tinged them sepia and lessened the emotional precipice.

Indeed, having just read another historical depiction of a lesbian relationship, I felt like the complications of having a same-sex relationship were gentler. But perhaps that is I’ll Be Right Here in a nutshell. It is a gentler take on life.

What it does bring home, however, is the importance of the relationships we build, those outside of our family that will remain with us and sustain us. That there is integrity with age that should be respected. And that was one of the most solid ideals I took away from this book. The “Greats” were respected for all they had gone through, learned, and given in return, the sharing of their knowledge whether it was baking or gardening or philosophy on life. Part of the beauty of this telling was the emptiness the younger generations knew they would experience as the Greats passed, but it was a bittersweet emptiness. Whether you believe the phrase or find it a laughable cliché, this is the instance where it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

Amy Bloom brings that to us in I’ll Be Right Here with a heart-warming style and embracing humor that hopefully makes us reach out to those in our lives who have made it better, richer, and hold all of our Greats closer and close in our hearts.

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy.

This book started out in WWII Occupied France where Gazela works for the writer. Colette. After a few brief chapters about the Jews who were sent to camps and attempts to gain their freedom, the book jumps to NYC where Gazela has moved and she meets the two Cohen sisters - Alma and Anna. Soon, her lost adopted brother Samir joins them and the foursome become lifelong friends.
The rest of the book is a confusing mix of multiple characters situated is different years and places, and I have to admit that more than once, I thought of just not finishing this short book because there really was no story.
I thought there were too many characters which were poorly developed, and - for me- my biggest objection was the time jumps which did not serve the story well as each section seemed like a vignette of a person, but showed no depth or reasoning for the inclusion. This book covers about 70 years and three generations, plus just about every consensual relationship that adults could have - ranging from adultery, incest, infidelity, homosexuality, polyamory, oh - did I mention marriage and divorce?
The lack of a real plot, the timeline disorganization, and poorly developed characters added up to an unsatisfying read for me, that I really would not recommend.
I received this ARC from NetGalley and Random House, and am leaving my own opinions voluntarily.

Although I normally love Amy Bloom's writing, I'm afraid that this one didn't grab me. I may try it another time.

Title: I'll Be Right Here
Author: Amy Bloom
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 1.75
Pub Date: June 24, 2025

I received a complimentary eARC from Random House Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Intimate • Complex • Messy

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Immigrating alone from Paris to New York after the crucible of World War II, young Gazala becomes friends with two spirited sisters, Anne and Alma. When Gazala’s lost, beloved brother, Samir, joins her in Manhattan, this contentious, inseparable foursome makes their way into the twenty-first century, becoming the beating heart of a multigenerational found family.

The decades are marked by the business of everyday life and the inevitable surprises of erupting passions, of great and small waves of joy and despair, from the beginning of life, to its end. Gazala and Samir make a home together, Anne leaves her husband for his sister, and Anne’s restless daughter grows up to raise a child on her own and join a throuple, becoming who she wants to be. Through it all, and the tumult of these decades, the four friends, and their best beloveds, stand by one another, protecting, annoying and celebrating each other, steadfastly unapologetic about their desires and the unorthodox family they have created. As the next generation falls in and out of love, experiencing life's triumphs, mistakes and disappointments, the central pillars of their lives are the indomitable people they call "the Greats".

💭 T H O U G H T S

Every now and then I request an ARC based solely on the cover and I'll Be Right Here is one of those times. Sometimes it works out, while others it doesn't. This was my first time reading Amy Bloom and it was one of those times where it just didn't work for me.

This felt like one long and confusing tangent, where I didn't necessarily care for or about any of the main characters. While it explores a wide variety of relationships and the theme of found family, there's no real story here. I was often lost in both time and place as it spans 80 years and various continents.

I appreciated the exploration of love in many forms, however, it seemed like the author was eager to include every type of relationship possible. Instead of representing variations in couples, it ended up feeling like checking the boxes on a list. I was expecting more of a historical fiction book but got more of an exploration of passion, attraction, and sex in all of its forms.

At the end of the day, I'll Be Right Here was a long, drawn out saga that I wish I had DNFed as I didn't gain much from having read it. It's quite possible if I'd actually taken the time to read the synopsis ahead of time I'd have foregone picking it up altogether. Live and learn right? Honestly, the cover really was the best part.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• found family
• learning about relationship types

⚠️ CW: infidelity, sexual content, polyamory, grief, adoption, war, death

Bloom’s latest novel opens with “the Greats,” the dying Gazala surrounded by her brother, Samir, and her sisters, Anne, Alma, and Honey. We are then transported back to 1930s Paris where Gazala declares that her neighbors are “criminal masterminds” for denouncing the Jews. We move ahead to 1942 Paris where Gazala, “the little Algerians with the good hands,” is hired by the famed French novelist Colette to address her crippling arthritis while Colette’s Jewish husband hides from the Nazis in Gazala’s attic room.

After the war, during which Gazala claims to have single-handedly killed three Germans, Colette gives her the funds to come to America where she finds work in a Manhattan bakery. It is there that she meets the Cohen sisters, Anne and Alma, and the three become inseparable. “The Cohen girls and Mrs. Cohen and Mr. Cohen . . . gave me my American life. Without them, I would have stayed the lying, thieving murderous corpse that I was when I met them.” In 1947, a painfully thin Samir arrives at Gazala’s doorstep after having served in the war in Algeria.

We move ahead to 2010 and learn that Samir and Gazala had bought a store and a house and maintained strict rules regarding their relationship. Bloom recites the resort vacation the two enjoyed in 1984 in Oaxaca, Mexico, where Gazala just “wants to lie with the love of her life and be naked together, naked even though Gazala cannot say much for their nakedness, at this late date, but it is theirs. . . .”

At the halfway point of the novel, Bloom expands the scope to encompass Anne, an accomplished woman who obtains a law degree in 1960, her wife, Honey, the sister of Anne’s ex-husband, the lackluster Richard Anderson, Richard and Anne’s daughter Lily, “the Jewish Grace Kelly,” Lily’s ex-husband, Roy, and their son, Harry, the “lover of sparkly outfits and showtunes since birth.” Lily, who once referred to herself as a “workaday secular nun,” enjoys a polyamorous relationship with a couple with whom she owns a bakery named Gazala, and a competitive relationship with Bea, the granddaughter of Gazala and Samir’s realtor and the “daughter they would not, could not, have. . . .”

Bloom has crafted a multigenerational tale of found family that spans decades and continents. The story that she unfurls is hardly linear, and she shifts perspectives from character to character and from point of view, but she expertly highlights that which is necessary at the appropriate time. Although kind Alma seems to get short shrift, for example, in just a few paragraphs, the reader learns all that they need to understand about this character — Alma confidently marries Isidore, the owner of a modest chicken farm and “the Toscanini of carving,” their daughter dies in infancy, Alma and Izzy comfort each other in their grief, and Izzy passes away just as Gazala is wearing down. Bloom’s embrace of love in its many forms is showcased in her depiction of an unconventional family whom she presents with humor and compassion. These are characters who will be remembered long after the book is closed. Thank you Random House and Net Galley for an advance copy of this moving saga of an irresistible family.

1.5. Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. While I have liked other books by Amy Bloom (specifically, “In Love”), this book did not work for me. Upon reflection I get the message of the importance of family…the one you’re born into and the one you create along the way with important people in your life. But this whole book felt like almost all it was about was how the different characters came into each other’s lives and stayed… without really much context or nuance as to why these people were important or how they became so important. There were also far too many tangents and parenthetical descriptors that didn’t add much. And it seemed to try too hard to include so many types of “different” relationship…incestuous, LGBTQ, polyamorous, adultery…and no monogamy. I think that in 2 weeks I won’t remember much of this book.

3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. This was a complicated tale of love and loss and love and loss. Somehow, despite all thoughts to the contrary, Bloom manages to weave these deeply moving lives into a story underpinned with hope and meaning. As I read this, I was struck by the idea that, despite the timeline of the novel—from WWII to almost present day—the characters' friendships and non-traditional loves are embraced in their time, or, at least, mostly. Not sure if this was a too-gentle and accepting depiction of the era, or just in such stark contrast to the frightening times we find ourselves in today. Love is love, everyone.

I’ll Be Right Here sweeps the reader from a little girl’s life in Occupied France during the Second World War in all its austerity through the very long life she builds and also into the worlds of the family members she acquires along the way. Once in America, Gazala quickly befriends and joins forces with the Cohen sisters, Alma and Anne, and the book follows not only them but their spouses/life partners, children, grandchildren and other family members that are garnered through the years.
It is Bloom’s near-magical writing style that carries this romp. I particularly enjoyed a depiction of early spring where she specified “It is not yet the fat, green grabby heart of spring “. I did have a hard time keeping track of who was who and how many of the characters fit into the big picture. I felt that I was reading a number of individually crafted, engaging vignettes.. These definitely drew me in, but I was just not tying these individuals that she wrote about into a cohesive whole.
All in all, I would say that my time spent with I’ll Be Right Here was very well spent. I just wish I was better able to string the various components together, as I feel that there’s something there in the totality that I am unable to grasp.

This book sounded right up my alley, but it felt a little too heavy and deep for a summer read, or what I was craving at this moment. The reader really has to pay attention as there isn't much dialogue and timelines are kind of all over the place. A winter release might have been better!

I enjoyed reading I'll Be Right Here by Am Bloom. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest novel by Amy Bloom. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 3.5 stars!

In 1942 Gazala, seventeen, works for Colette, a writer. She immigrates alone from Paris to New York after WWII, and becomes friends with sisters Anne and Alma Cohen. Gazala’s adopted brother, Samir, later joins her and the two become lovers. These four characters become life long friends and a family to each other.

I have really liked all of the books by Amy Bloom that I have read, so I was very anxious to read her latest. As expected, the writing was gorgeous but I struggled a bit to keep up with so many characters and many different timelines and locations. At its heart, it's a beautiful story of found family and love in all forms. There was a bit of a feeling though that there was a checklist nearby to include all forms that love may appear, which seemed a bit forced. It was a short book, but felt longer because I struggled some. It's getting good reviews, so be sure and read them as well.

Thank you to Amy Bloom, Random House, and NetGalley for giving me access to this eARC!

I fell in love with Bloom's writing after reading In Love so I was extremely excited to receive a copy of her newest novel. First and foremost, the writing was just as beautiful in this book. Bloom has such lush and full of life imagery, she really makes the reader feel like they are fully immersed in to the book. There were so many interesting details and plot points in I'll Be Right Here. I think Alma and Izzy's story really got to me, it felt so innocent and pure, Alma's entire character was the purifier for this group. I also felt most intrigued when I was reading about Gazala and Samir's younger selves. They both lived hard and incredible lives, the historical aspects of this novel were certainly well researched. The ending was also truly beautiful, all about life and love and connections, I gobbled it up.

However, the romantic aspects of this story were largely unpalatable. A (non-biological but still familial) brother and sister turned lovers, a woman who leaves her husband for his sister, sudden polyamory, I just felt a bit inundated with taboo. I wouldn't have disliked any of these things if it was only one introduced and expanded upon but it felt like Bloom was trying to be trendy almost. I think Honey and Anne (the sister-in-laws turned wives) made sense together and would have rather just had more focus on that. Gazala and Samir did not need to have romantic love, they existed perfectly as siblings.

I still enjoyed this novel and it gets a solid 3.5 from me!

Just finished I’ll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom—what a journey. It’s a beautifully written, decades-spanning tale about a chosen family that stretches from 1930s Paris to 21st-century America. Bloom weaves multiple perspectives—Gazala, Samir, Anne, Alma—through a nonlinear narrative that sometimes requires focus, but pays off with emotional depth and lyrical prose .

I’m always in the mood for a good family saga. This was a rather unusual one. It begins in Paris during WWII and features a young woman (Gazala) of Algerian background who ends up working for the famous author Colette. One thing leads to another and Gazala ends up in the US - first in NYC and later in the Poughkeepsie area (Vassar is in Poughkeepsie and there is a connection but I can’t recall it).

The story revolves around a little family Gazala creates via a Jewish family who take an interest in her as a young woman and her brother. (The story of the brother and the relationship between the two is a bit confusing. He’s been adopted by Gazala’s parents after his own parents die when he is a month old.)

There are a number of places in the story where I got a bit confused. The timing jumps around rather drastically and so does the character who’s telling the story.

The theme is what makes a family, and how to navigate being different - either due to heritage such as Jewish or Algerian or sexual orientation.

This book is more than three stars but not quite four - let’s say 3.5 rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Amy Bloom’s I’ll Be Right Here is a sweeping, emotionally resonant novel that explores the intricate bonds of chosen family across continents and decades. With her signature blend of wry humor and compassionate insight, Bloom crafts a multigenerational saga that is both intimate and expansive.

At the heart of the story are Gazala and Samir Benamar, orphaned Algerian siblings navigating post-WWII Paris before reuniting in New York. Their unconventional relationship—both familial and romantic—sets the tone for a narrative that challenges traditional definitions of love and kinship. They are soon joined by Anne and Alma Cohen, spirited sisters whose lives intertwine with Gazala’s in ways both tender and tumultuous. Together, this foursome becomes the foundation of a found family that spans generations, affectionately dubbed “the Greats.”

Themes of identity and resilience permeate the novel. Bloom doesn’t shy away from complexity with Anne leaving her husband for his sister, Gazala and Samir conceal their romantic bond, and the next generation embraces fluidity in relationships and selfhood. Yet through it all, the characters remain steadfast in their devotion to one another, even when love is messy or unspoken.

Although I was challenged to keep up with the different POVs, this book felt like a reward with moments of profound beauty and emotional truth. Bloom’s ability to render ordinary lives extraordinary through her lyrical prose was evident throughout.

In This Matriarchy, There Are No Villains

I’ll Be Right Here is not mainly about sex, but it’s certainly part of its ongoing conversation. This novel is about intimacy, emphatically yes. And it’s undeniably literary fiction to be ranked among the master stylists, many of whom were men during the last century. Updike, Cheever, Bellow, Roth - all of them wrote about upper-middle-class daily life and strife, those stories not set entirely in the suburbs of New York City, but consistently appealing to readers of The New Yorker. Joyce Carol Oates has also written about and spoken to that audience in the same era, and into our own (Amy Bloom has also been published in The New Yorker. Is that evidence of a sensibility? An audience?)

This story is a family saga. But in this case the notion of family must be extended to include some principals who are adopted players. It’s no spoiler to disclose that the tale begins at Gazala’s deathbed - in recent time - then flashes back to her girlhood as a poor French-Algerian girl growing up amid the hardships of WWII Vichy Paris.

Even though I’m outlining the relationships among characters here, these plot points aren’t necessarily spoilers. The story is all about the emotional lives of a tightly-knit group of women.

Adopted? You see, Gazala is the grand matriarch of this story, but she’s an adopted member of the Cohen family - adopted, that is, emotionally rather than legally. The Cohen sisters of Poughkeepsie - Alma and Anna - treat Gazala as an honored member after they meet her in the bakery where she works, six months after her arrival in America.

Spanning multiple generations, a family tree might help you keep track. (In any such story, I often feel I need one as first names get strewn about, pages after being introduced.

Alma is sweet and generous. She falls in love with homely Izzy almost at first sight. They plan on having a family, but can’t, then, after some happy years, Izzy dies. Anna, more practical, settles on marrying the mild-mannered WASP Richard, and gives birth to Lily. Anna then forsakes Richard to form an intimate partnership with Honey, who happens to be Richard’s sister. Remarkably, Richard seems understanding.

By her soon departed husband Roy, Lily has a child, Harry, who grows up proudly gay, showbiz inclined, and dresses with appropriate flair. Lily takes up with Bea, who is unrelated to any of them as she comes onstage, having been adopted fondly years back by Gazala and Samir, who had befriended Isabel, their real-estate agent, grandmother of Bea. (Are you writing this down?) Bea was married briefly but quickly decided it was a mistake.

Interwoven with those more contemporary episodes, the WWII backstory describes Gazala’s devotion to her older brother Samir (Sammy). After they’ve been orphaned in Paris, she learns to make her way performing favors for German soldiers. Sammy acquires unspecified talents as a hustler. Gazala learns manners of the aristocratic class after she takes a job as personal assistant to the aged Madame Collette, the famous author.

Gazala is devoted to Sammy as she is to none of her male lovers. They share a bed and fall asleep in one another’s arms. Incest is implied. They will remain this close for the rest of their lives, even after Gazala emigrates to New York, followed by Sammy. There she works in a patisserie, having learned the baker’s trade back in Paris from her father, who worked as assistant to a pastry chef.

After Alma’s Izzy has passed and Anna has taken up with Honey, those three women become a matriarchy with Gazala as their spiritual leader. The second generation, represented by Lily and Bea, will refer to them as “the Greats.”

Unlike melodramas set in similar circumstances, jealousies don’t matter much in the plot. Neither do deaths, which simply occur, and if wrenching, the crises take place off-screen. For the most part, the men in the story - spouses and lovers, at times - aren’t so much stereotypical as they are temporary, therefore unimportant. One man, a young fellow named Jess, a cousin of Bea, is trans, and it’s no secret. He is the father of twins Luke and Lisa. And, oh yes, Lily describes her dalliances in polyamory, which ultimately did not appeal to her, but not for lack of honesty, fairness, and variety.

What persists and endures is the love among these women, old and young. I’m reminded of Anne Tyler’s novels, which some critics have described as “an angel’s eye view.” There are no villians or even meanness in her books - just misunderstood adversaries. And, as in Bloom’s novel, no violence.

Many literary novels seem to be fictionalized memoir, and I’ll Be Right There reads like one. Bloom does name a family in her Acknowledgments who may have been her model for the Greats. However, she cites research sources for French-Algerian history and culture, so perhaps those plot threads aren’t woven from her own background.

I believe the central theme of Bloom’s novel is the power, the coherence, and the sanity of matriarchy. Even if it’s related as fiction, the world of the Greats is a much kinder, gentler place than most of us experience.

But - about those intimate relationships?

It’s an open question whether there have been so many permutations and combinations of coupling (and throupling) in the author’s life - or whether, in describing a better world - she went out of her way to hit all the bases.

Why? In a more perfect world, shouldn’t we all have the right to choose?

I’ll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom is very much a character driven novel, initially taking place in France, towards the end of World War Two and up to 2015 in New York. The writing is descriptive and beautiful and involves many characters who have somewhat complicated relationships. Ultimately, this group of people is family, mostly by choice, rather than biological.

I found the narrative to be somewhat confusing, as it shifts from person to person, and may start at one point in time but then becomes a remembrance of a different point in time. Overall, there was not much of a plot and so many people to track that it was a bit hard going however the writing was sometimes lyrical and picturesque. So, for me, a mixed bag, but may work better for others.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Random House for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

During World War II, Gazelle leaves Paris for New York and becomes friends with sisters Alma and Annie. Eventually, her brother joins them, and the four become fast friends and family. I loved how furiously these four loved each other and stood behind each other, which couldn't have been easy during the mid-twentieth century. It's a great look into family dynamics. The characters were very typical in the way they dealt with their struggles. I could recognize their issues easily, but their individual strengths didn't shine through. I felt like their journeys held no surprises.

There's a lot of internal dialogue in this one, and I usually enjoy that because I can get inside a character's head, but this just seemed to drone on and on. It was more style than substance. Bloom's writing is beautiful, but the emotional impact I was expecting wasn't there. There is a lot of love, loss and longing between the pages, but I felt the author was being a little too safe. I wanted to be immersed in the raw messiness of life and generational grief in all its horrible glory. I found the plot a tad confusing to follow as the timeline jumped around. The book seemed to be written in snippets instead of a flowing, linear timeline.

A brother and sister in occupied France fight to live. When Gazala moves to New York, so becomes close with sisters Anne and Alma. Their families become intertwined and the next two generations make up a complicated family with a variety of relationships.

I have liked Amy Bloom's books before but maybe I have built her up in my head more than in reality. Because I did not like this book much. I didn't connect with her detached writing style, she threw in tons of characters (many with similar names) to try to keep straight, and she had so many complicated relationships that I just wished for some solid ground. It felt like a long saga even though it was under 300 pages, and its short length is the only reason I finished it (at which time I felt like I should have won a perseverance award.) Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this one but it's getting some good buzz, so what do I know?

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

I like Bloom's writing, but I just couldn't really get into this one, which felt like a pretty basic fallout-from-WWII story. Not the right book for me right now, but will likely be the right book for many readers.