Work Like Any Other: A Novel - Softcover

Reeves, Virginia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501112503 ISBN 13: 9781501112508

Publisher: Scribner, 2017

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

In this ';inventive, beautiful, and deceptively morally complex novel' (The Miami Herald), a prideful electrician in 1920s rural Alabama struggles to overcome past sins, find peace, and rescue his marriage after being sent to prison for manslaughter.

Roscoe T Martin set his sights on a new type of power spreading at the start of the twentieth century: electricity. It became his training, his lifes work. But when his wife, Marie, inherits her fathers failing farm, Roscoe has to give up his livelihood, with great cost to his sense of self, his marriage, and his family. Realizing he might lose them all if he doesnt do something, he begins to siphon energy from the state, ushering in a period of bounty and happiness. Even the love of Marie and their child seem back within Roscoes grasp.

Then a young man working for the state power company stumbles on Roscoes illegal lines and is electrocuted, and everything changes: Roscoe is arrested; the farm once more starts to deteriorate; and Marie abandons her husband, leaving him to face his twenty-year sentence alone. As an unmoored Roscoe carves out a place at Kilby Prison, he is forced to ask himself once more if his work is just that, or if the price of his crimesfor him and his familyis greater than he ever let himself believe.

Work Like Any Other is a consummately well-written, deeply affecting, thought-provoking American historical novel of hard labor, broken dreams, moral dilemmas, violence, racism, and the intricacies of marriage, parenthood, and friendship. Hope is found in reading, compassion, forgiveness, and good, honest work, whatever form it takes. Virginia Reevess gripping, dynamically plotted, and profound novel will resonate on different frequencies for men and women and spark soul-searching and heated discussion (Booklist, starred review).

About this title

About the Author

Virginia Reeves is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. Her debut novel, Work Like Any Other, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and Booklist named it to their Top 10 First Novels of 2016. Virginia lives with her husband and daughters in Helena, Montana, where she teaches writing and speech at Helena College. The Behavior of Love is her second novel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501112503
• ISBN 13: 9781501112508
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272