The Breakaway

Weiner never disappoints, and her latest (after The Summer Place) is a stunner. Abby Stern is 33 and doesn’t know what she wants from her life, so right now she’s a gig worker. She’s happiest on her bike, able to get herself anywhere she needs to go under her own power. She’s in a safe relationship with Mark, who was smitten when they first met as teens at fat camp. When Abby is tapped to lead a 700-mile bike tour from Manhattan to Niagara Falls, she leaves Mark in Philadelphia in a tense moment: are they going to move in together? Two years earlier, on a bachelorette trip, Abby had her only one-night stand with Sebastian, a gorgeous man who matched her wits and sensuality. Their chemistry was intense, but she left without a word. Now her trepidations about leading the bike tour increase when she learns she has two new surprise cyclists: Sebastian, and Eileen, Abby’s judgmental mother. The ride is a spectacular journey, full of interpersonal connection, surprising backstories, and poignantly relevant twists regarding bodily autonomy.