Author:Stephen Amidon
It's the spring of 2001, the Connecticut suburbs are looking fresh and opulent. Everyone is driving great cars, building beautiful houses, living the American Dream. But Drew Hagel has spent the last decade watching things slip away - his first marriage, his real estate brokerage, and his beloved daughter, Shannon, now a distant and mysterious high school senior. He is in danger of losing his place in the affluent suburbs once ruled by his father, when an unexpected friendship with Quint Manning opens Drew's eyes to vast wealth. What Drew doesn't know is that Manning has problems of his own - his midas touch is abandoning him, his restless wife, Carrie is growing disillusioned with all the money, and his hard-drinking son, Jamie, Shannon's classmate, is careering out of control. As the fortunes of three families - parents and teenagers - collide, a terrible accident involving Jamie and Shannon gives Drew the leverage he needs to stay in the game. But what are the consequences of speculating with human lives rather than money? In this astonishing, compelling novel, Stephen Amidon chronicles the American suburban dream with devastating accuracy.
[There are] those of us who have buttonholed strangers on the Underground and raved about Moorcock's masterpieces Byzantium Endures and The Laughter of Carthage
—— Sunday TelegraphHis is the grand, messy flux itself, in all its heroic vulgarity, its unquenchable optimism, its enthusiasm for the inexhaustible variousness of things. Posterity will certainly give him that due place in English literature
—— Angela Carter , GuardianAn exciting, ecstatic work of criticism
—— GuardianA good deal of intellectual athleticism on display... Eco is a scintillating lecturer, and an elegant journalist... At his most mercurial
—— IndependentOn Literature is a provocative and entertaining collection of sprightly essays on the key texts that have shaped Eco the novelist and critic
—— The Book People'You'll be flipping pages so fast, the breeze will keep you cool on the beach'
—— New Woman'Fast paced and funny...the perfect summer read'
—— 19This is one that you won't want to miss - a wonderful debut novel
—— Armchair Interviews.comIntelligent chick-lit ... This laugh-out-loud debut will captivate readers
—— Publishers WeeklyThis debut novel is a fresh, thoroughly enjoyable read
—— Sarah BroadhurstWonderfully comic and touching
—— Sunday TelegraphInterweaves a variety of thoroughly imagined life stories and predicaments with quiet, effective skill
—— Mail on SundayI have greater admiration for Margaret Forster than for most novelists. A very fine, continuously interesting, and often moving work, all the better because it is so firmly rooted in the ordinary world of everyday experience
—— ScotsmanCadwalladr also captures the desperation at the heart of most good comedy. She maintains the tragicomic balance to the end and has the confidence to chose the right, realistic ending over the wrong, romantic one
—— The Observer/ReviewA hilariously funny and moving chronical of three generations of the Monroe family told through the eyes of Rebecca in the 1970s. It is not just a habit of quoting proverbs and a recipe for sherry trifle that have passed down the maternal line. There's a habit of broken marriages, dubiously fathered children and untimely deaths.
—— EliteRebecca Monroe is really stumped when it comes to her family's behaviour. Why, on the day Charles and Camilla got married, did her mum lock herself in the loo and refuse to come out? Was it due to the collapse of her chocolate cake, or because Rebecca's grandmother ended up marrying her first cousin?
Pondering what it is that makes her clan click, Rebecca is determined to discover whether it is genes or fate that affects the different generations.
A fun little romp about the joys of family and the genes we inherit.
Touching and surprising...A moving account of the personal and social pressures that shape our childhood experiences and resonate throughout out lives
—— The Sunday TimesThis exciting first novel by a talented writer is a moving exploration of family life in the twenty-first century...You won't want to put this book down
—— My WeeklyHilariously funny and moving chronicle of three generations
—— Peterborough Evening News