Synopses & Reviews
Remarkable . . . Morton] conjures up lives so vivid the reader mourns their passing.”
The New York Times Book ReviewIn this heartbreakingly beautiful novel, Brian Morton gives us four complicated, passionate people whose lives are tested by tragedy. Breakable You is the story of Maud, a brilliant but fragile graduate student; her father, Adam, a novelist hungry for greater fame; Eleanor, his former wife, a psychologist struggling to reinvent herself in middle age; and Mauds new lover, Samir, an Arab American intellectual in mourning for his lost daughter. A novel that is both clear-eyed and deeply compassionate, Breakable You examines what we do when life gives us more than we think we can bear.
"A literary theft, a death and the sparking of desire make for a tumultuous year in the lives of four New Yorkers fumbling toward belated self-discovery . . . In this polished, affecting novel, their stories intertwine and uplift: As Maud, the book's tender heart, reflects, striving is 'the law of life.'"People
"Morton is the rare writer equally invested in people and ideas . . . [He] creates some of the most complex and real female characters of any writer."--San Francisco Chronicle
BRIAN MORTON is the author of three previous novels, including Starting Out in the Evening, which won the Koret Jewish Book Award and was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award, and A Window Across the River, which was a Today Book Club selection. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and New York University and lives in New York. Reading Group Guide available at www.HarcourtBooks.com.
Review
PRAISE FOR BRIAN MORTON "For some readers, Brian Morton may still be an undiscovered treasure. He wont be for long." -
Newsday"The passion of Mortons characters ring true . . . because the romantic ones conflict with such things as professional ambition and jealously." -Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Adam Weller is a middle-aged novelist, past his prime, but squiring around a much younger woman and still longing for greater fame and glory. His former wife, Eleanor, is unhappily playing the role of the overweight, discarded woman. Their fragile, perennial-student daughter, Maud, has just begun a frankly sexual affair with Samir, an Arab American. Into these lives the past intrudes in a way that will test them to their cores. Adam receives an appeal from the widow of his literary mentor and rival when she finds a manuscript that may be a lost masterpiece. Eleanor is suddenly contacted by Patrick, her first love, whom she abandoned for the larger, brighter life Adam seemed to promise. And Maud discovers that Samir is still in mourning for his young daughter, whose death remains the central fact of his existence. By the novel’s end, all of these characters will be forced to stare at the truth of their lives and make choices that will define their essential natures.
With perfect pitch and rare empathy, Brian Morton brilliantly portrays both the life of the mind and the dictates of the heart.
Synopsis
Adam Weller is a moderately successful novelist, past his prime, but squiring around a much younger woman and still longing for greater fame and glory. His former wife, Eleanor, is unhappily playing the role of the overweight, discarded woman. Their daughter Maud has just begun a frankly sexual affair that unexpectedly becomes life-changing. Into each of these lives the past intrudes in a way that will test them to their core. With perfect pitch and a rare empathy, Brian Morton is equally adept at portraying the life of the mind and how it plays out in the world, brilliantly tracing the border between honor and violation. Here Morton tells his strongest story yet—a story about love, friendship, literary treachery, and what each of us owes to the past.
About the Author
BRIAN MORTON is the author of four previous novels, including Starting Out in the Evening, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was made into an acclaimed feature film, and A Window Across the River, which was a Book Club selection of the Today show. He teaches at New York University, the Bennington Writing Seminars, and Sarah Lawrence College, where he also directs the writing program. He lives in New York.