Synopses & Reviews
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011The New York Times bestseller now in paperback—A thought-provoking engrossing novel about love, connection, and loss from the author of The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children What if your life was upended in an instant? What if your spouse or your child disappeared right in front of your eyes? Was it the Rapture or something even more difficult to explain? How would you rebuild your life in the wake of such a devastating event? These are the questions confronting the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, a formerly comfortable suburban community that lost over a hundred people in the Sudden Departure. Kevin Garvey, the new mayor, wants to move forward, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized neighbors, even as his own family disintegrates. His wife, Laurie, has left him to enlist in the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence but haunt the towns streets as “living reminders” of Gods judgment. His son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a crooked "prophet" who calls himself Holy Wayne. Only his teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and shes definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be.
Through the prism of a single family, Perrotta illuminates a familiar America made strange by grief and apocalyptic anxiety. The Leftovers is a powerful and deeply moving book about regular people struggling to hold onto a belief in their futures.
Review
"Aand#160;stunning novel about faith and disillusionment and the lingering power of the past." - Tom Perotta
and#8220;A remarkable, empathetic exploration of the nature of faith, meaning and happiness.and#8221;and#8212;Laura Miller, Salon.com
and#8220;Riveting, suspenseful . . . Achieves a unique harmony between otherworldly beliefs and earthly realities.and#8221;and#8212;San Francisco Chronicle "Let us give Rock an A-plus for setting in motion a story that is intricate and interlocking, a double helix where fact and faith mirror each other, the view refracting and refracting again. Also, for using an open hand (heart, mind) with characters one might easily write off as crackpots, and for laying out figurative (and literal) vistas where the ground shifts, then opens up, and then explodes." and#8211; Oregonian "Peter Rock further demonstrates his literary finesse with this intense novel about two people who grew up with a spiritual clan bracing for the apocalypseand#8230;. The real beauty in Rockand#8217;s narrative lies not in the carefully revealed secrets, but in the curious humanity within each of them."and#8212;Publishers Weekly (starred review) "As luminous as it is sinister and innocent, The Shelter Cycle is a book not quite like any other. Peter Rock renders masterfully the ferocity and intensity of bonds between childhood friends as well as adults, coupling also the inescapable loneliness and yet hope within the human soul." and#8212; Rick Bass "Peter Rock is marvelous at revealing both the insightful strangeness and the madness erring on the outskirts of civilization, and at showing with great sympathy how quickly we can slip from one to the other." and#8212; Brian Evenson "The Shelter Cycle is a beautifully crafted, beautifully felt novel. Rock's rendering of place is, as usual, flawless. He knows terrain so well, both geographical and human, where we hide and where we can be found. The writing is fierce, smart and moving. This is the real deal." and#8212; Percival Everett "Certain writers are so unnervingly original their work secedes from our shared world and makes up a world of its own. With The Shelter Cycle it's clear that Peter Rock's world is the most singular and wondrous of them all." and#8212; Susan Choi "A beautifully lyrical, brooding and haunting tale of faith and faithfulness on the edge of civilization as we know it."and#8212;Shelf Awareness
"Expertly imagined, eminently readable, and inarguably haunting." and#8211; Booklist
Synopsis
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011
The New York Times bestseller now in paperback--A thought-provoking engrossing novel about love, connection, and loss from the author of The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children
What if your life was upended in an instant? What if your spouse or your child disappeared right in front of your eyes? Was it the Rapture or something even more difficult to explain? How would you rebuild your life in the wake of such a devastating event? These are the questions confronting the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, a formerly comfortable suburban community that lost over a hundred people in the Sudden Departure. Kevin Garvey, the new mayor, wants to move forward, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized neighbors, even as his own family disintegrates. His wife, Laurie, has left him to enlist in the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence but haunt the town's streets as living reminders of God's judgment. His son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a crooked prophet who calls himself Holy Wayne. Only his teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet A student she used to be.
Through the prism of a single family, Perrotta illuminates a familiar America made strange by grief and apocalyptic anxiety. Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers is a powerful and deeply moving book about regular people struggling to hold onto a belief in their futures.
Synopsis
With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers is a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.
What if--whoosh, right now, with no explanation--a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down?
That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened--not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children.
Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin's own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet A student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.
A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011
A USA Today 10 Books We Loved Reading in 2011 Title
One of NPR's 10 Best Novels of 2011
Synopsis
and#8220;Riveting, suspenseful . . . Achieves a unique harmony between otherworldly beliefs and earthly realities.and#8221; and#8211;
San Francisco ChronicleFrancine and Colville were childhood friends raised in the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religion that predicted the world could end in the late 1980s. While their parents built underground shelters to withstand the impending Soviet missile strike, Francine and Colville played in the Montana wilderness, where invisible spirits watched over them. When the prophesied apocalypse did not occur, the sectand#8217;s members resurfaced and the children were forced to grow up in a world they had believed might no longer exist.
Twenty years later, Francine and Colville are reunited while searching for an abducted girl. Haunted by memories and inculcated beliefs, they must confront the Churchand#8217;s teachings. If all the things they were raised to believe were misguided, why then do they suddenly feel so true?
and#8220;[A] remarkable, empathetic exploration of the nature of faith, meaning and happiness.and#8221; and#8211; Laura Miller, Salon.com
About the Author
TOM PERROTTA is the author of six works of fiction, including The Wishbones, Election and Joe College. His novels Election and Little Children were made into acclaimed and award-winning movies. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.