Synopses & Reviews
A richly imagined novel'"set in wartime Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, Sicily, and contemporary America'"about men and women whose jolting encounters with the unfamiliar force them to realize how many "riffs there are to being human." Travelers, colonials, immigrants, and returned ex-pats meet or pass one another in narratives spanning lifetimes.
In the book's opening, an engineer in Vietnam is shaken to discover why his company's planes are getting lost. A modern marriage between a Thai Muslim and an American woman leads to a terrible family fight. In 1920s Siam a young woman experiences the colonial stance of her tin-prospecting brother. The last section returns the brother to the States, older now but ever in love with Asian women.
Love, loss, yearning, self-delusion, and forgiveness are here in ways fresh and surprising. And in the tradition of E. M. Forster, seeing the size of the world changes the meaning of home-sickness for all the characters.
Review
"Silber allows readers to see life as intimately knowable yet essentially mysterious." Howard Norman
Review
"Starred Review. In Silber's magnificent fiction . . . the characters' lifetimes pass with a page-turning effortlessness that belies their intense, moving depths." Washington Post
Synopsis
An intricate web of crossed paths and enlightening journeys teach each of Joan Silber's characters something about "the size of the world" in this richly imagined novel. A National Book Award finalist for her last book, Silber here addresses the timeless topics of love, loss, yearning, and forgiveness. She "does brilliant justice to the many ways we have of being human" () and "offers a dizzying array of insights as she cuts back and forth between stories set in the U.S. and Asia" ().
Synopsis
Silber's richly imagined novel--set in wartime Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, Sicily, and contemporary America--follows men and women whose jolting encounters with the unfamiliar force them to realize how many levels there are to being human.
Synopsis
'A sublime and humane jigsaw puzzle of a novel.' '"Boston GlobeAn intricate web of crossed paths and enlightening journeys teach each of Joan Silber"s characters something about 'the size of the world' in this richly imagined novel. A National Book Award finalist for her last book, Silber here addresses the timeless topics of love, loss, yearning, and forgiveness. She 'does brilliant justice to the many ways we have of being human' (
Seattle Times) and 'offers a dizzying array of insights as she cuts back and forth between stories set in the U.S. and Asia' (
Chicago Tribune).
Synopsis
Love and family loyalty meet up with the allure of far-off vistas in elegant new fiction by an acclaimed novelist.
Synopsis
"A sublime and humane jigsaw puzzle of a novel." --
Synopsis
“A sublime and humane jigsaw puzzle of a novel.” —Boston Globe
About the Author
Joan Silber is the author of six previous works of fiction. Among many awards and honors, she has won a PEN/Hemingway Award and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.