Leaving the World - Softcover

Kennedy, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0091795796 ISBN 13: 9780091795795

Publisher: Hutchinson, 2009

Synopsis

On the night of her thirteenth birthday, Jane Howard made a vow to her warring parents - she would never get married and she would never have children.

But life, as Jane comes to discover, is a profoundly random business. Many years and many lives later, she is a professor in Boston, in love with a brilliant, erratic man named Theo. And then Jane falls pregnant. Motherhood turns out to be a great welcome surprise - but when a devastating turn of events tears her existence apart she has no choice but to flee all she knows and leave the world.

Just when she has renounced life itself, the disappearance of a young girl pulls her back from the edge and into an obsessive search for some sort of personal redemption. Convinced that she knows more about the case than the police do, she is forced to make a decision - stay hidden or bring to light a shattering truth.

Douglas Kennedy's exceptional new novel is a portrait of the way we live now, of the many routes we follow in the course of a single life, and of the arbitrary nature of destiny. Like his previous highly acclaimed novels it is also a compulsive read - and one which speaks volumes about the dilemmas we face in trying to navigate our way through all that fate throws in our path.

About this title

Review:

"Douglas Kennedy is famous for two things: writing insightfully about women's lives, and crafting narratives so utterly gripping as to redefine the concept of unputdownable. In "Leaving the World", these strengths combine to make an unforgettable reading experience."

"This is a book with lasting impact: powerful, provocative, and tender."

"In this surging epic, a veritable decathlon of the spirit, Kennedy incisively dramatizes the enigma of chance, petty cruelty, and catastrophic evil, 'unalloyed grief, ' and the tensile strength concealed beneath our obvious vulnerability."

"If you read only one book this summer, make sure it's Douglas Kennedy's "Leaving the World"."

"Readers who enjoy well-written mainstream works like those of Richard Yates, Richard Russo, Jodi Picoult, and Jane Smiley will be happy to add Kennedy to their list of favorites."

"Kennedy is a master storyteller, who never fails to keep you gripped until the last page."--Sarah Dunant

""Leaving the World" is a classy page-turner from a novelist who has become a cultural icon in Europe. This is a novel about guilt, uncertainty, redemption, and the fact that we build the roads upon which the accidents of chance occur. Kennedy's characters embark on long, complex, provocative journeys, and their ultimate strength is that -- like the writer -- they can throw off bright sparks in the dark."--Colum McCann

"The tough, bright heroine of "Leaving the World "barrels ahead through life, with pluck and acerbity, bruises and injustices not always stepping out of her path. In his fast-paced, engrossing novels Douglas Kennedy always has his brilliant finger on the entertaining parts of human sorrow, fury, and narrow escapes. Wonderful."--Lorrie Moore

Kennedy is a master storyteller, who never fails to keep you gripped until the last page. --Sarah Dunant"

"Leaving the World" is a classy page-turner from a novelist who has become a cultural icon in Europe. This is a novel about guilt, uncertainty, redemption, and the fact that we build the roads upon which the accidents of chance occur. Kennedy's characters embark on long, complex, provocative journeys, and their ultimate strength is that -- like the writer -- they can throw off bright sparks in the dark. --Colum McCann"

Review:

`In a novel remarkably devoid of mawkishness, Kennedy has pulled off another classy page-turner that engages, entertains and consoles... he once more delivers the message that whatever hole you dig for yourself, you're probably not alone.'

About this edition

• Publisher: Hutchinson
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0091795796
• ISBN 13: 9780091795795
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464