SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2017
A sweeping American drama about the long legacy of mental illness, the bonds of kinship, and the limits of love
Michael is John and Margaret's eldest son. He's a precocious kid, smart and funny, obsessed with books and music.
His sister Celia is the sensible one in the family: tougher than the boys, unshakeably certain about how the world works.
And then there's Alec, the youngest, the most ambitious and also the most sensitive. He grows up in the shadow of Michael's distant coolness and Celia's pragmatic confidence, never quite keeping up with the others.
The children are still living at home when their brilliant, beloved father walks into the woods by their house and take his own life. Years later, one of them will follow him.
How are we damaged by what we inherit? How much can any family give to save one of its own? And how can you tell the difference between what is passed on and what is picked up - between the truly inherited flaw and the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Weaving together the voices of five family members, Adam Haslett imagines how a single isolated tragedy can become the event that defines many lives, unfolding a rich and painful novel that has all the makings of an American classic.
Intimate first-person narratives do the story a world of good. John's dread, his fugue state; the all-consuming nature of Michael's predicament - powerfully written. Partly the reason it took me so long to get through this book.
