Arriving in their summer home less than a year after the suicide of a teenage daughter, Joan and her family stumble on the death of a local young man and bond with his grieving mother before learning that the victim's death was not accidental.
Centered on a young girl who inexplicably stops speaking, December is a riveting and insightful portrait of a family in crisis.Nine months after eleven-year-old Isabelle suddenly fell silent, her parents, Wilson and Ruth, are at their wits' end. And what began as self-protection has spiraled beyond Isabelle's control; she has become trapped in her silence, horrified by the pain she is causing and terrified of losing her old self to this cold young girl she barely recognizes. Isabelle must confront her overwhelming anger and love for her family, a cast of charming yet dangerous characters, and her own fears, before finally finding her voice.
Hollis Clayton is in trouble. His wife has decamped for the summer, leaving him to pursue his increasingly overwhelming compulsions: drinking; spying on neighbors; worrying about the fate of an abducted local girl; avoiding his editor, who is on the verge of rejecting his new collection of stories; and confronting as obliquely as possible the recent death of his young son. Meanwhile, he is spending more time with Jack Daniels and a stubbornly persistent stray dog than with anyone else, including his girlfriend Marissa, who has either abandoned him or been abandoned by him, he’s not sure which. A tender and comic portrait of suburban despair, Fireworks details the events of one strange summer in which a man’s troubled soul hangs in the balance. In her perceptive exploration of Hollis’s disintegrating life, Elizabeth Winthrop gives us an unforgettably powerful portrait of an anguished man, one who is both endearingly flawed and vividly real.
The acclaimed novel by the author of The Why of Things tackles “the Deep South during the Gothic worst of Jim Crow times . . . truly a bravura performance” (Geoffrey Wolff). “One of the finest writers of her generation,” and author of three previously acclaimed novels, Elizabeth H. Winthrop delivers a brave new book that will launch her distinguished career anew (Brad Watson). On the eve of his execution, eighteen-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner’s chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie’s father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. In his office the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets. As various members of the township consider and reflect on what Willie’s execution means, an intricately layered and complex portrait of a Jim Crow era Southern community emerges. Moving from voice to voice, Winthrop elegantly brings to stark light the story of a town, its people, and its injustices. The Mercy Seat is a brutally incisive and tender novel from one of our most acute literary observers. “Artful and succinctly poetic . . . A worthy novel that gathers great power as it rolls on propelled by its many voices.”—The New York Times Book Review “A miracle of a novel, with rapid-fire sentences that grab you and propel you to the next page . . . It’s a breakout. It’s a wonder.”—Dallas Morning News
Since her seventeen-year-old daughter's suicide less than a year ago, Joan Jacobs has been working to keep her once tight-knit family from coming apart. Now, arriving one June evening at their summer home in Massachusetts, she and her husband, Anders, and their two younger daughters stumble across another tragedy: a pickup truck has, inexplicably, driven straight into a quarry in their backyard. Within hours, divers drag up the body of a young local man, James Favazza. As the Jacobs learn more about the events that led up to that fateful evening, each member of the family becomes increasingly tangled in the emotional threads of James's life and death: fifteen-year-old Eve grows obsessed with proving that James's death wasn't an accident, though the police refuse to consider this; Anders finds himself forced to face his own deepest fears; and seven-year-old Eloise unwittingly adopts James's orphaned dog, all while Joan herself becomes increasingly fixated on James's mother, a stranger whose loss so closely mirrors her own.
We are proud to introduce seven powerful, original, and irresistible novels coming in 2013 from Simon & Schuster: The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, Y, Middle Men, Motherland, The Why of Things, The Gravity of Birds, and Snow Hunters. This sample features exclusive excerpts, interviews with the writers, and commentary from the books’ editors. · In The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne, an eleven-year-old pop megastar searches for his identity in the dark heart of America's monstrous obsession with fame. · Marjorie Celona’s highly acclaimed and exquisitely rendered debut, Y, follows a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. · From an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Motherland is a powerful story of a love triangle set in England, France, India, and Jamaica against the backdrop of World War II. · In Middle Men, Stegner Fellow and New Yorker contributor Jim Gavin delivers a hilarious and panoramic vision of California, portraying a group of men, from young dreamers to old vets, as they make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. · Tracy Guzeman's compelling debut novel, The Gravity of Birds, follows the ordeal of an art authenticator and an art historian employed by a famous, reclusive painter to sell a never-before-seen portrait, leading them to discover devastating secrets two sisters have kept from each other, and from the artist. · In Snow Hunters, an elegant, haunting, and highly anticipated debut novel from 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree Paul Yoon, a North Korean war refugee confronts the wreckage of his past. · From the critically acclaimed author of December comes The Why Of Things, a buoyant and beautiful new novel about a family struggling in the aftermath of a suicide. Each author is an accomplished artist and has created a lasting work you’ll want to read and relish and talk about.
Hollis Clayton is in trouble. His wife has decamped to her sister's house for the summer, leaving him to pursue without interruption his increasingly overwhelming compulsions: drinking; spying on the neighbours; following with rising anxiety the fate of a recently abducted local girl; confronting, as obliquely as possible, the loss of his young son; and avoiding his editor at New York's pre-eminent publishing house, who is on the verge of rejecting his new collection of stories. In the meantime, he has more immediate difficulties: a stray dog with whom he is forced to share his Mexican takeout; a back injury resulting from a midnight adventure on his neighbour's trampoline; and his girlfriend, Marissa, who has either abandoned him or been abandoned by him, he's not sure which. Here, in the daily rhythms of Hollis's disintegrating life, is an eviscerating comic portrait of suburban despair, and a deeply affecting tale of grief and renewal. Hollis Clayton - caught in a hilarious, paralyzing struggle between the world's dizzying randomness and its suffocating overdetermination - is a marvellous creation.
Louisiana, die 1940er-Jahre, ein elektrischer Stuhl wird in die kleine Stadt St. Martinsville gebracht für die geplante Hinrichtung eines jungen Schwarzen namens Will, der ein weißes Mädchen vergewaltigt haben soll. In Wirklichkeit ist sie seine Geliebte gewesen, die sich aus Verzweiflung umgebracht hat und ihm nun nicht mehr helfen kann. Alle wissen, dass das Todesurteil ein Skandal ist, aber sogar Will selbst hat aus Trauer und Schuldgefühlen innerlich eingewilligt, und weiße Wutbürger drohen dem zweifelnden Staatsanwalt mit der Entführung seines Sohnes.Nach einer wahren Begebenheit, psychologisch fein und in einer an William Faulkner erinnernden multiperspektivischen Intensität erzählt Elizabeth Winthrop die tragischen Ereignisse bis zum überraschenden Ende. Ein meisterhaftes Buch, das man nicht mehr aus der Hand legt und das niemanden kaltlassen wird.
Arriving in their summer home less than a year after the suicide of a teenage daughter, Joan and her family stumble on the death of a local young man and bond with his grieving mother before learning that the victim's death was not accidental.
We are proud to introduce seven powerful, original, and irresistible novels coming in 2013 from Simon & Schuster: The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, Y, Middle Men, Motherland, The Why of Things, The Gravity of Birds, and Snow Hunters. This sample features exclusive excerpts, interviews with the writers, and commentary from the books’ editors. · In The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne, an eleven-year-old pop megastar searches for his identity in the dark heart of America's monstrous obsession with fame. · Marjorie Celona’s highly acclaimed and exquisitely rendered debut, Y, follows a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. · From an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Motherland is a powerful story of a love triangle set in England, France, India, and Jamaica against the backdrop of World War II. · In Middle Men, Stegner Fellow and New Yorker contributor Jim Gavin delivers a hilarious and panoramic vision of California, portraying a group of men, from young dreamers to old vets, as they make valiant forays into middle-class respectability. · Tracy Guzeman's compelling debut novel, The Gravity of Birds, follows the ordeal of an art authenticator and an art historian employed by a famous, reclusive painter to sell a never-before-seen portrait, leading them to discover devastating secrets two sisters have kept from each other, and from the artist. · In Snow Hunters, an elegant, haunting, and highly anticipated debut novel from 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree Paul Yoon, a North Korean war refugee confronts the wreckage of his past. · From the critically acclaimed author of December comes The Why Of Things, a buoyant and beautiful new novel about a family struggling in the aftermath of a suicide. Each author is an accomplished artist and has created a lasting work you’ll want to read and relish and talk about.
Centered on a young girl who inexplicably stops speaking, December is a riveting and insightful portrait of a family in crisis.Nine months after eleven-year-old Isabelle suddenly fell silent, her parents, Wilson and Ruth, are at their wits' end. And what began as self-protection has spiraled beyond Isabelle's control; she has become trapped in her silence, horrified by the pain she is causing and terrified of losing her old self to this cold young girl she barely recognizes. Isabelle must confront her overwhelming anger and love for her family, a cast of charming yet dangerous characters, and her own fears, before finally finding her voice.
Hollis Clayton is in trouble. His wife has decamped for the summer, leaving him to pursue his increasingly overwhelming compulsions: drinking; spying on neighbors; worrying about the fate of an abducted local girl; avoiding his editor, who is on the verge of rejecting his new collection of stories; and confronting as obliquely as possible the recent death of his young son. Meanwhile, he is spending more time with Jack Daniels and a stubbornly persistent stray dog than with anyone else, including his girlfriend Marissa, who has either abandoned him or been abandoned by him, he’s not sure which. A tender and comic portrait of suburban despair, Fireworks details the events of one strange summer in which a man’s troubled soul hangs in the balance. In her perceptive exploration of Hollis’s disintegrating life, Elizabeth Winthrop gives us an unforgettably powerful portrait of an anguished man, one who is both endearingly flawed and vividly real.
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