{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T162657Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CC1CBF6W?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"B0CC1CBF6W","authors":["Caoilinn Hughes"],"book_id":"9780593545010","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-alternatives-B0CC1CBF6W","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593545010.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","description":"“A bold, beautiful, complex novel, and I can’t wait to read what Hughes writes next. She, too, is an unstoppable force.” — New York Times Book Review “A tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species, The Alternatives unfolds in a prose full of gorgeous surprises and glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty.” —Hernan Diaz From the writer Anthony Doerr calls “a massive talent,” the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn’t want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict bungalow, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780593545010","publication_date":"20250415","publisher":"Penguin Publishing Group","slug":"the-alternatives","subtitle":"A Novel","title":"The Alternatives"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"FIC045020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Sibling Stories","score":0.7616,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAF018070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"YA Sibling Stories","score":0.7401,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAF018020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"YA Alternative Family Stories","score":0.7352,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"FIC045020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Sibling Stories","score":0.7616,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAF018070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"YA Sibling Stories","score":0.7401,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAF018020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"YA Alternative Family Stories","score":0.7352,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"FIC019000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Literary Fiction","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"FIC045020","confidence_band":"high","label":"Sibling Stories","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"FIC077000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Nature Fiction","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Sibling Stories","score":0.7616,"slug":"sibling-stories"},{"label":"YA Sibling Stories","score":0.7401,"slug":"ya-sibling-stories"},{"label":"YA Alternative Family Stories","score":0.7352,"slug":"ya-alternative-family-stories"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Sibling Stories","Good for readers interested in book club","Good for readers who enjoy Sibling Stories and YA Sibling Stories."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Emma Straub"],"book_id":"9780525539018","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525539018.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":15.6296,"title":"This Time Tomorrow","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525539018"},{"authors":["Hannah Beckerman"],"book_id":"9780062952189","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062952189.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":15.1561,"title":"If Only I Could Tell You","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062952189"},{"authors":["Andrea Lochen"],"book_id":"9780425263136","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780425263136.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":14.6966,"title":"The Repeat Year","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780425263136"},{"authors":["Colleen Hoover"],"book_id":"9781662536120","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781662536120.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":14.254,"title":"Reminders of Him","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781662536120"},{"authors":["Lorna Lewis"],"book_id":"9781662526947","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781662526947.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":13.2493,"title":"A Sky Full of Love","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781662526947"},{"authors":["Rhonda McKnight"],"book_id":"9780840706577","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780840706577.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":13.2048,"title":"Bitter and Sweet","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780840706577"},{"authors":["Kerry Lonsdale"],"book_id":"9781503935310","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781503935310.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":13.1952,"title":"Everything We Keep","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781503935310"},{"authors":["Marie Bostwick"],"book_id":"9781400344741","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781400344741.jpg?v=20260417T162657Z%3A2026-04-17T16%3A26%3A57Z","score":13.1816,"title":"The Book Club for Troublesome Women","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781400344741"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:books for women"],"label":"Women","score":0.5667,"slug":"women"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.0914,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:summer books"],"label":"Summer","score":0.0557,"slug":"summer"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Women, Book Club, Summer.","Reading lane: Sibling Stories and Ya Sibling Stories.","Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":600,"goodreads_ratings_count":4241,"goodreads_reviews_count":653,"quality_score":0.9611}}