THE CONDITION - Softcover

Haigh, Jennifer

3.52

9,971 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007225075 ISBN 13: 9780007225071

Publisher: HarperFiction, 2008

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A year in the life of the members of the divided McKotch family, revealing their secrets and their conflicts

The house by the sea held sepia-tinted family memories tight within its walls. Once a year it was dusted down, its windows flung open, the sound of laughter echoed throughout its rooms; this was the rhythm of family life. All that is about to change.

When Gwen, the youngest child, is diagnosed with Turner's Syndrome, the family knows that her body will never grow to adulthood. Frank, her scientist father, is fascinated by the disease, while Paulette her mother is horrified. As they struggle to cope with the ramifications of Gwen's illness, her parents see the cracks within their marriage widen irreparably.

Equally affected are their sons; one a successful lawyer in denial about who he is, the other whose search for himself and his need for his parents’ approval has only resulted in a series of dead ends.

Jennifer Haigh paints a brilliant portrait of a family idyll and its seemingly inevitable and painful disintegration in this stunning and thought-provoking novel.

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Review:

Praise for The Condition

‘With humour, grace and an abiding compassion that is becoming her signature, 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
NYT bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog

‘The ailment at the centre 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 character’s hearts and minds.’
Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of Little Children

‘Haigh creates a realistic family dynamic from richly drawn characters, capturing the family members’ various expectations of assumptions about one another. Compelling; highly recommended for all fiction collections.’
Library Journal

About the Author:

Jennifer Haigh is the author of the critically acclaimed Mrs Kimble, for which she won the Pen/Hemingway Award, and a second novel Baker Towers was equally well recieved. She grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and now lives in Hull, Massachusetts. This is her third novel.

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