The Fragile World

by Paula Treick DeBoard

From the author of stunning debut The Mourning Hours comes a powerful new novel that explores every parent's worst nightmare...

The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test.

And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything. Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a "freak" road accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief.

The anguish of Daniel's death is isolating, and it's not long before this once-perfect family finds itself falling apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to pack up his life and his anxious teenage daughter and set out on a collision course to right a wrong.

An emotionally charged novel, The Fragile World is a journey through America's heartland and a family's brightest and darkest moments, exploring the devastating pain of losing a child and the beauty of finding the way back to hope.

Praise for Paula Treick DeBoard

'Heart-stopping. A gripping read that delivers a beautiful reminder of the resilience of love.' - Karen Brown, author of The Longings of Wayward Girls

• ISBN10: 1460330498
• ISBN13: 9781460330494
• Publish Date: 1 November 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Mira Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I won an ARC of this book via the GoodReads First Reads programme. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/11/14/review-the-fragile-world/

The Fragile World follows the Kaufmans after the loss of their son, Daniel. The grief is raw and quite palpable throughout the book, of how his death has changed the rest of their lives forever. The book follows the perspectives of Olivia and Curtis, whose grief manifests itself in different ways and who overall provides interesting takes on their responses to Daniel’s death.

Curtis and Olivia’s journey to visit Katherine in Omaha after a “moment” back in Sacramento is not only a physical road trip but also an emotional and character journey. Olivia slowly opens up and begins to face her fears, many of which she had been writing down over the years in her “fear journal.” Curtis’ journey on the other hand takes a darker turn as he becomes obsessed in righting and wrong and facing the man who killed his son. It’s tense as there are plenty of opportunities in which Curtis was almost caught, and the climax of his efforts was just harrowing.

The Fragile World thus is a meditation of loss and grief and the ways it can affect both the individual and the family unit. It’s a stressful read; you feel for the characters, and yet their trajectories, especially that of Curtis, leaves the reader feeling uneasy. Nonetheless it’s an interesting meditation on grief and tragedy and the different ways in which people acknowledge and work through them. I would recommend this title for readers of contemporary adult fiction, though you may need to be in a particular mood to read it.