The Travelers: Regina Porter - Softcover

Porter, Regina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1787331016 ISBN 13: 9781787331013

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2019

Synopsis

An astonishing debut novel that bears witness to the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War and the first term of Obama's presidency, The Travelers is both an intimate family portrait and a searing examination of America today.

James Vincent is born in 1942 to a working class white couple whose marriage was already on the rocks. James struggles to move beyond a difficult childhood and escapes the violence at home to attend law school in Michigan, where he begins to envision his future as prosperous and bright.

Meanwhile, on a rural road in Georgia, Agnes Miller, a black woman on her first date with a handsome suitor, is pulled over by the police, and the terrible moments that follow make her question whether she will have a future at all. As the years unspool ahead of them, unexpected turns of fate will connect these two lives and their families: two Americans who each come up against the forces of race, class, and gender that change – and end – ordinary lives.

About this title

Review:

"Regina Porter’s sprawling, sparkling debut novel... is an exhilarating ride. Porter is a wickedly astute chronicler of human foibles. In her hands, this series of glimpses feels something like life itself." (Guardian)

"An astoundingly audacious debut." (Oprah Magazine)

"Spanning six decades and three continents...[The Travelers] is held together by an elegant web of connections... Porter has a striking habit of telescoping time to chart individual trajectories... The often breathtaking immediacy and assurance of Porter’s prose carries you through." (Daily Mail)

"If you’re looking for a poetic, spare, sometimes funny tale of ordinary people pining for meaningful connections ― or if you’re someone who wishes Raymond Carver had published a novel ― you have arrived." (New York Times)

"This kaleidoscopic debut novel... deftly skips back and forth through the decades, sometimes summarizing a life in a few paragraphs, sometimes spending pages on one conversation. As one character observes, "We move in circles in this life."" (New Yorker)

About the Author:

Regina Porter is an award-winning playwright and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. She was born in Savannah, Georgia and lives in Brooklyn. The Travelers is her first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1787331016
• ISBN 13: 9781787331013
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320