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Claire MessudClaire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs, is fiercely intelligent and urgently intimate, written with precision, humor, and an incredible... Continue »
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Cover

ISBN13: 9780375725784
ISBN10: 0375725784
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. The Vintage edition includes a new appendix by the author.

Review:

"A virtuosic piece of writing, a big, daring, manic-depressive stew of a book that noisily announces the debut of a talented — yes, staggeringly talented — new writer." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Review:

"Eggers evokes the terrible beauty of youth like a young Bob Dylan, frothing with furious anger....A comic and moving witness that transcends and transgresses formal boundaries." Washington Post

Review:

"Eggers unfailingly captures the reader with gorgeous conviction." Lynn Crosbie, The Toronto Star

Review:

"Eggers crafts something universal here, something raw and real and wonderful that transcends any zeitgeist and manages to deal trenchantly with 'big issues' that often prove too daunting for younger writers: mortality, youth, the artifice of writing, the Zen of Frisbee. This is laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable." San Francisco Chronicle

Review:

"A brave work, and not a little heartbreaking." National Post

Review:

"Scathingly perceptive and hysterically funny....Eggers reveals a true, and truly broken, heart." People
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About the Author

Dave Eggers is the bestselling author of Zeitoun, winner of the American Book Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His novel What Is the What was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won France's Prix Medicis.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 9 comments:
Amanda Townsend, August 6, 2012 (view all comments by Amanda Townsend)
You don't have to read this review. If you do, maybe just read the second half. Or really just the last sentence, it's all you actually need.

This is the (mostly) true story of how Dave Eggers conquered the world with his younger brother, orphaned by cancer and propelled into the world of being owed everything. He hands you this tale on a platter full of original voice, chicken, and maybe some fruit. His pain is your pain. And yours and yours and yours.

Narrating knowing that you will be reading this, he manipulates the structure of a novel, the structure of a page, a paragraph, a sentence. He sometimes engages in conversation with his characters about the book itself, about the sentence you are reading, the metaphor you missed. He wrote this book so that you, you reading this right now, would read it. Not because you need to read it, but because he needs you to read it. It relies on you George Steve Mary Sally to read it otherwise it won't work. It will change your life and everything will stay the same.

This book is very good and you should read it.
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Ava Sennett, January 28, 2011 (view all comments by Ava Sennett)
I first read this book years ago, and named it as a favorite. This year I picked it up again and was blown away by Eggers all over again. His writing is all at once hilarious, tragic, and easy to relate to. I love this book, and it has influenced me both as a person and as a writer.
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Susan Jacobson, August 27, 2010 (view all comments by Susan Jacobson)
The title of this book is a perfect description of the story inside! It is a wonderful story about life, and I dare you to put it down, once you have picked it up! This is one of those few books that I will read more than once.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780375725784
Author:
Eggers, Dave
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Author:
Various
Location:
New York
Subject:
United States - 20th Century
Subject:
Death
Subject:
Brothers
Subject:
Journalists
Subject:
Family/Interpersonal Memoir
Subject:
Parents
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Editors, Journalists, Publishers
Subject:
Parents -- Death -- Psychological aspects.
Subject:
Biography - General
Copyright:
2001
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage
Series Volume:
2
Publication Date:
20010231
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
496
Dimensions:
8.01x5.22x1.02 in. .78 lbs.
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Related Subjects

» Biography » General
» Biography » Literary
» Featured Titles » General
» Featured Titles » Literature
» Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
» Fiction and Poetry » Literature » Featured Titles

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$8.95 In Stock
Product details 496 pages Vintage Books USA - English 9780375725784 Reviews:
"Review" by , "A virtuosic piece of writing, a big, daring, manic-depressive stew of a book that noisily announces the debut of a talented — yes, staggeringly talented — new writer."
"Review" by , "Eggers evokes the terrible beauty of youth like a young Bob Dylan, frothing with furious anger....A comic and moving witness that transcends and transgresses formal boundaries."
"Review" by , "Eggers unfailingly captures the reader with gorgeous conviction."
"Review" by , "Eggers crafts something universal here, something raw and real and wonderful that transcends any zeitgeist and manages to deal trenchantly with 'big issues' that often prove too daunting for younger writers: mortality, youth, the artifice of writing, the Zen of Frisbee. This is laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable."
"Review" by , "A brave work, and not a little heartbreaking."
"Review" by , "Scathingly perceptive and hysterically funny....Eggers reveals a true, and truly broken, heart."
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