

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find Where'd You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Where'd You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
Combining sharp social satire with comedic human vulnerability, modern humorous fiction often examines the absurdities of domestic life, artistic ambition, and personal reinvention. Author Maria Semple transitioned from a successful career writing for major primetime television shows to authoring acclaimed comic novels that explore these contemporary pressures through inventive narrative structures and witty dialogue. She achieved widespread literary recognition with her bestselling novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette, which was translated into forty languages and adapted into a feature film.
Semple's background writing for television comedy heavily influences her fiction, giving her prose a fast-paced, episodic rhythm and a keen eye for eccentric character motivations. Her novels balance biting humor with emotional depth, exploring modern suburban neuroses and the search for personal fulfillment.
Maria Keogh Semple was born on May 21, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. Her early childhood involved traveling through Europe with her parents, including time spent in Torremolinos, Spain, where her father, screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., wrote the pilot episode for the Batman television series. Following the success of Batman, the family moved to Los Angeles before relocating to Aspen, Colorado in the early 1970s. Semple later attended Barnard College, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree before launching a career in television.
Beginning in the 1990s, Semple established herself as a television writer and producer in Los Angeles. Her screenwriting credits spanned prominent sitcoms and comedy-dramas, including Beverly Hills, 90210, Mad About You, Ellen, Suddenly Susan, Saturday Night Live, and Arrested Development. Transitioning from television to prose fiction, she published her debut novel in 2008, bringing her sharp comedic timing and character development into the literary world.
Semple's literary work is characterized by vibrant satire, high-tempo pacing, and observant commentary on middle-class domesticity, artistic frustration, and modern family dynamics. She frequently employs unconventional epistolary techniques—constructing narratives out of emails, memos, transcripts, and official reports—to generate narrative momentum while providing layered perspectives on her protagonists. Her fiction navigates the intersection of sharp cynicism and genuine empathy, highlighting flawed characters striving to navigate chaotic lives.
1 books in catalog
Combining sharp social satire with comedic human vulnerability, modern humorous fiction often examines the absurdities of domestic life, artistic ambition, and personal reinvention. Author Maria Semple transitioned from a successful career writing for major primetime television shows to authoring acclaimed comic novels that explore these contemporary pressures through inventive narrative structures and witty dialogue. She achieved widespread literary recognition with her bestselling novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette, which was translated into forty languages and adapted into a feature film.
Semple's background writing for television comedy heavily influences her fiction, giving her prose a fast-paced, episodic rhythm and a keen eye for eccentric character motivations. Her novels balance biting humor with emotional depth, exploring modern suburban neuroses and the search for personal fulfillment.
Maria Keogh Semple was born on May 21, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. Her early childhood involved traveling through Europe with her parents, including time spent in Torremolinos, Spain, where her father, screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., wrote the pilot episode for the Batman television series. Following the success of Batman, the family moved to Los Angeles before relocating to Aspen, Colorado in the early 1970s. Semple later attended Barnard College, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree before launching a career in television.
Beginning in the 1990s, Semple established herself as a television writer and producer in Los Angeles. Her screenwriting credits spanned prominent sitcoms and comedy-dramas, including Beverly Hills, 90210, Mad About You, Ellen, Suddenly Susan, Saturday Night Live, and Arrested Development. Transitioning from television to prose fiction, she published her debut novel in 2008, bringing her sharp comedic timing and character development into the literary world.
Semple's literary work is characterized by vibrant satire, high-tempo pacing, and observant commentary on middle-class domesticity, artistic frustration, and modern family dynamics. She frequently employs unconventional epistolary techniques—constructing narratives out of emails, memos, transcripts, and official reports—to generate narrative momentum while providing layered perspectives on her protagonists. Her fiction navigates the intersection of sharp cynicism and genuine empathy, highlighting flawed characters striving to navigate chaotic lives.