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|summary=A funny and satirical epistolary style book about the life of an mother coping, or not, with modern life. Bernadette, a talented architect, has gone missing long before she goes missing, as her 15 year old daughter will discover. An enjoyable, light read.

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Much like the missing question mark in the title it would seem, Bernadette has disappeared. Maria Semple's ''Where'd You Go, Bernadette'' works as both a physical and emotional question. Bernadette Fox is the wife of Elgie Branch, a star at Microsoft in Seattle, and mother of 15 year old, Bee. The narrative begins with Bee wondering where her mother had gone, but then quickly moves to an epistolary format told in e-mails, notes and messages between the major players, including some rather obnoxious mothers at Bee's school, one of whom also works at Microsoft with Elgie. We are taken back a few weeks to when Bernadette was around and a seemingly somewhat angry mother prior to her mysterious disappearance. One of the delights about the book, which along with being very funny on issues like helicopter parenting, corporate life and, er, Canadians, is that it emerges that Bernadette is more than a wife and mother but has a past career of her own as a talented architect which she has sacrificed for one reason or another. Thus, in many ways she disappeared long before her physical disappearance.