This Beautiful Life (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series) - Hardcover

Schulman, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410444279 ISBN 13: 9781410444271

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2012

Synopsis

When the Bergamots move from an upstate college town to New York City, they're not sure how they'll adapt. Soon Richard is consumed by his executive role at a large university. Liz, who gave up an academic career to raise her children, is busy ferrying young Coco around. And fifteen-year-old Jake is taken into the fold at an elite private school. But their upper class cocoon is ripped apart by scandal when Jake causes a good family to face bad choices. Bestseller

About this title

Review:

"This Beautiful Life is as much a bracing novel as a timely cautionary tale.... Schulman has managed to capture this bizarre of-the-moment tragedy in a novel that remains deeply humane and sensitive.... This Beautiful Life is a powerful story of a good family in crisis."--Mary McGarry Morris, Washington Post

"In the hands of a lesser writer, this might have been simply a book about a scandal; Helen Schulman, though, has a long enough view, and a large enough heart, to have found in that scandal's outlines a mournful and affecting portrait of our brave new social world."--Jonathan Dee, Author of The Privileges

"A harrowing and moving account of just how much twenty-first-century technology has magnified the scope of the kind of imbecilities in which teenagers excel. It's poignant about the fragility of even those homes that are seemingly invulnerably insulated by privilege and caring and vigilant parents."--Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway

""This Beautiful Life" isn't just an intimate look at family breaking down under intense pressure; it's also a sharp and unsparing indictment of a culture in search of scapegoats. In this timely and provocative novel, Helen Schulman maps out the contours of a contemporary American nightmare."--Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children

"Helen Schulman is one of the most gifted writers of her generation."--Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Good Squad

"A gripping, potent, and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence. While the setting is thoroughly modern, the drama feels as ancient and inevitable as a Greek myth. I read this book with white-knuckled urgency, and finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliant novelist."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love

"Schulman's topical, unsettling new novel [is] set in Manhattan's world of private-school privilege but chillingly relatable for parents anywhere.... Raising tough questions about child rearing, morality and the way the Internet both frees and imprisons, Schulman's story resonates."--People (3 ? out of 4 stars)

"A rich, engrossing, and surprisingly nuanced novel exploring timeless questions of guilt and responsiblity."--O, The Oprah Magazine

"With psychological acuity and cinematic pacing, Helen Schulman takes a hypercontemporary nightmare...and parlays it into a wildly compelling novel about parenting, privilege, and the fragility of happiness.... This Beautiful Life is moving, disturbing, and grandly incisive."--Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines

"In another writer's hands, it might come out as a cautionary tale, but Schulman is careful not to paint anyone as villain or victim."--Hannah Gerson, New York Observer

Book Description:

The controversial and explosive story of how one email can tear a family apart.

From the publishers of The Slap, this international bestseller is a provocative fictional exploration of the way we live now.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1410444279
• ISBN 13: 9781410444271
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 317