The Condition: A Novel - Couverture souple

Haigh, Jennifer

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0061685917 ISBN 13 : 9780061685910

Editeur : Harper Perennial, 2008

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

The long awaited third novel from best-selling and award-winning author Jennifer Haigh , following up the trade paperback success of MRS. KIMBLE and BAKER TOWERS.
The Condition explores one turbulent year in the lives of the McKotches, a New England family in extremis. Paulette and Frank McKotch, long divorced, hide a mountain of old grievances from their three adult children, who are busy with crises of their own. Billy, the eldest, is a successful Manhattan cardiologist living a double life. Scott, the youngest, has made an endless series of wrong turns. And Gwen, the daughter, lives a hermitic life far away from her parents. The family attributes her reclusive temperament to her Turner s syndrome, a chromosomal disorder that has left her with the stature and physical maturity of an eleven year-old child. From the day it was diagnosed, Gwen s condition has caused explosive disagreement between her parents. Frank is fascinated by the clinical manifestations of Turner s -- a scientific interest that horrifies Paulette, who sees Gwen s condition as nothing short of calamity.

As Christmas 1997 approaches, Frank, a prominent medical researcher, is on the brink of a big discovery when an old rival reappears. Billy s secret life implodes, and Scott becomes obsessed with roads not taken. And Gwen, in her thirties, falls in love for the first time, a development the whole family views with alarm.

The Condition looks at the power of science and its profound limitations, the determining reality of biology and the power of individual will. Mostly, though, it is a story about parents and children and siblings: the people we love but didn t choose -- and in many cases, wouldn t have; the complex and bewildering web of loyalties and resentments that takes a lifetime to form.

Revue de presse :

“[Haigh] looks unflinchingly at family ties—the kind that limit and the kind that can actually liberate. The Condition is a satisfying feat of literary choreography.” (Wall Street Journal)

“THE CONDITION is something rare. . . . Ms. Haigh has a great gift for telling interwoven family stories and doing justice to all the different perspectives they present. . . . A remarkable accomplishment.” (Janet Maslin, New York Times Book Review)

“Haigh’s characters are layered and authentic. Moreover, one would have to have a heart of stone not to care for them and follow their small sagas. . . . Haigh is such a gifted chronicler of the human condition.” (Chris Bohjalian, Washington Post Book World)

“Jennifer Haigh illuminates the dark tangle of desire and deed that is the family, that crucible we so often yearn to flee yet keep coming back to again and again. THE CONDITION is unsentimental, compelling, and moving, and I urge you to read it!” (Andre Dubus III, New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist House of Sand and Fog)

“The ailment at the center of this remarkable novel is the human condition itself. Jennifer Haigh has written a sprawling, emotionally gripping account of one family’s troubled history, enlivened by her formidable intelligence and deep insight into her characters’ hearts and minds.” (Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Little Children and Election)

“[A] rich, enjoyable third novel. . . . Haigh sets many balls in motion . . . [and] the McKotch clan evolves believably, and satisfyingly.” (People (People Pick))

“Poignant. . . . A strong nod to the healing power of love.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Filled with genuine insight and touching lyricism.” (Kirkus Reviews)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Harper Perennial
• Date d'édition: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061685917
• ISBN 13: 9780061685910
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 400