Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant: A Novel

“Beautiful . . . funny, heart-hammering, wise . . . superb entertainment.”

–The New York Times

“A book that should join those few that every literate person will have to read.”

–The Boston Globe

Pearl Tull is nearing the end of her life but not of her memory. It was a Sunday night in 1944 when her husband left the little row house on Baltimore’s Calvert Street, abandoning Pearl to raise their three children alone: Jenny, high-spirited and determined, nurturing to strangers but distant to those she loves; the older son, Cody, a wild and incorrigible youth possessed by the lure of power and money; and sweet, clumsy Ezra, Pearl’s favorite, who never stops yearning for the perfect family that could never be his own.

Now Pearl and her three grown children have gathered together again–with anger, hope, and a beautiful, harsh, and dazzling story to tell.

“A novelist who knows what a proper story is . . . [Tyler is] not only a good and artful writer, but a wise one as well.”

–Newsweek

“Anne Tyler is surely one of the most satisfying novelists working in America today.”

–Chicago Tribune

“In her ninth novel she has arrived at a new level of power.”

–John Updike, The New Yorker

“Marvelous, astringent, hilarious, [and] strewn with the banana peels of love.”

–Cosmopolitan

Eighty-five-year-old Pearl Tull recalls the desertion of her husband and her attempts to raise their three children, who must come to terms with their own lives and with their feelings toward their father after their mother's death. Reader's Guide included. Reissue. 20,000 first printing.

Something you should know — Teaching the cat to yawn — Destroyed by love — Heart rumors — Country cook — Beaches on the moon — Dr. Tull is not a toy — This really happened — Apple apple — Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.