A Reunion of Ghosts - Hardcover

Mitchell, Judith Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062355880 ISBN 13: 9780062355881

Publisher: Harper, 2015

Synopsis

"In the vein of such classic family sagas as Fall on Your Knees, A Reunion of Ghosts is the confessional of three sisters who have decided to kill themselves on the very last day of the 20th century; in it they tell the story of a family haunted by suicide ever since the sisters' great-grandfather, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, developed the first poison gas used in warfare and also the lethal agent used in the Third Reich's gas chambers--inspired in part by the troubled life of Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of mustard gas"--

About this title

Review:

"Judith Claire Mitchell's splendidly dark and comic novel A Reunion of Ghosts. . . is a very funny book but it is also tender, sombre and thought-provoking."--Financial Times

"Mitchell's plot, which twists in unexpected but believable ways and opens up just when it seems as if it can only close in, is thoroughly satisfying, but it's the tone of her novel--that ability to savor joy and sorrow at the same time--that makes it remarkable."--Columbus Dispatch

"Mitchell's masterful family saga...captures the agony and ecstasy (but mostly agony) with deep empathy and profound wit. For the Alters, life has been a seemingly endless series of tragedies; for us, the tragedy is that this stunning novel inevitably comes to an end."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"[A] quirky, profound, tragic, morbidly comical family saga."--Buffalo News

"My favourite novel of the year so far.... A literary mash-up of The Virgin Suicides and Grey Gardens. I wouldn't be surprised if Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola are slugging it out for the film rights already."--Sam Baker, Harper's Bazaar online (UK)

"For the Alter sisters, living with the guilt of the generations, there is only one way out.... This novel is a carefully crafted, thought-provoking examination of history past and present as seen through the eyes of a complex yet humble family."--Booklist

"This is a triumphant, beautiful, and devastating novel about coincidences, family, and the sins of our fathers."--Anthony Doerr, New York Times bestselling author of All The Light We Cannot See

"Judith Claire Mitchell understands what's at the marrow of our funny bones: that humor lives in darkness, that our families are our curses and our blessings, that great pain can beget great warmth and love."--Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia

"A rich portrait of a complicated family, at turns violent and hilarious, shot through with love and death and the scars that reappear generation after generation."--Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers

"Mitchell explores the mixed-blessing bonds of family with wry wit. This original tale is black comedy at its best."--People Book of the Week

From the Back Cover:

A NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST

"The Alter sisters are mordant, wry, and crystalline in wit and vision; it is a tremendous pleasure to rocket through generations of their family histories with them." --Lauren Groff, New York Timesbestselling author of Fates and Furies, The Monsters of Templeton, and Arcadia

In the waning days of 1999, the last of the Alters--three damaged but wisecracking sisters who share an apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side--decide it's time to close the circle of the family curse by taking their own lives. But first, Lady, Vee, and Delph must explain the origins of that curse and how it has manifested throughout the preceding generations. Unspooling threads of history, personal memory, and family lore, they weave a mesmerizing account that stretches back a century to their great-grandfather, a brilliant scientist whose professional triumph became the terrible legacy that defines them. A suicide note crafted by three bright, funny women, A Reunion of Ghosts is the final chapter of a saga lifetimes in the making--one that is inexorably intertwined with the story of the twentieth century itself.

"Mitchell explores the mixed-blessing bonds of family with wry wit. This original tale is black comedy at its best."--People Book of the Week

"A rich portrait of a complicated family, at turns violent and hilarious."--Emma Straub, New York Timesbestselling author

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062355880
• ISBN 13: 9780062355881
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400