Imagine Me Gone
Published on 30. June 2016
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-241-20121-3 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
Publisher's description. How much can any of us do to save those we love from themselves? What does the dark legacy of guilt do to a person, to a relationship, to a family? Achingly poignant and sharply witty, this portrait of a single tragedy rippling across many lives has all the makings of an American classic. * Penguin * Imagine Me Gone is literature of the highest order. It manages to be both dreadfully sad and hilariously funny all at once. It is luminous with love * Peter Carey * Exceptional, haunting, intimate and panoramic...There is an exhilaration in reading something so perceptive and well executed...This is certainly a sad story, but also a warm and moving one, which bears witness to the intertwining of grief and love * Sunday Times * With skill and subtlety, Imagine Me Gone sweeps the reader into its characters' worlds and makes us reflect on our own lives. It might be the best American novel about a middle-class family since Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections * Independent * Haslett has a great gift for capturing the strikingly different inner worlds of his characters and rendering them in beautiful prose * Guardian * It's not just one of the best novels of the year; it might be one of the best novels ever about living, and dying, with mental illness * NPR Best Books of the Year 2016 * Raw, tender and hilarious...a family saga reminiscent at times of Anne Enright's The Green Road...The Pulitzer-Prize-shortlisted Haslett lets rip to dazzling effect...A showstopper * Daily Mail * There are some books, and this is one, that grab you in the first paragraphs and don't let go. A beautiful novel that re-evaluates how we cope with tragedy * ELLE * Brilliantly captures the excruciating burden of love * Esquire *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
625 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-20121-3 (9780241201213)
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Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Adam Haslett is the author of the short-story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here, a New York Times bestseller shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize and the US National Book Award, and the novel Union Atlantic, winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Hamish Hamilton published his latest novel, Imagine Me Gone. His books have been translated into eighteen languages and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, the Financial Times, and Der Spiegel, among others. He lives in New York.