Synopses & Reviews
From the critically acclaimed author of The Legacy comes a riveting new novel about a group of friends whose longtime tensions and rivalries are suddenly exposed after one of them dies suddenly. Elliot West is a newly minted assistant professor of English literature. Every year, he travels to Las Vegas to reunite with a group of friends from college over a long weekend. As time has passed, they have become increasingly alienated from one another despite their attachment to this annual ritual. Nine years after graduation, Dylan, the most charismatic among them, dies in an accident. While Elliot is shaken by his death, at the group’s next reunion he quickly learns that Dylan was not all he claimed to be—and it is only then that he is able to see beyond the glimmering personality and to examine the true role his friend played in their lives.
A Common Loss is a fascinating look at the darker side of friendship and the complex feelings that can exist alongside affection and loyalty in the human heart. When Dylan’s death reveals long-held secrets, Elliot is forced to find a way to come to terms with his own past and the possibilities and limits of redemption.
Review
"A Common Loss is a potent story of secrets, love, friendship, and the bonds that keep people close and
Review
“Kirsten Tranter is another emerging Australian novelist to have successfully exploded the myth of the Difficult Second Novel. The Legacy, published in 2009, was that rarest of birds, a bestselling literary fiction. The thriller elements of its narrative were coolly braided with a revisiting of Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady. Her new novel is even better. A Common Loss takes its epigraph from Tennyson’s In Memoriam, and what follows is a contemporary anatomy of grief, played out between four friends in the wake of a fatal accident, that tightens around the reader like a vice. Tranter makes most other psychological thrillers seem simple-minded.” —The Australian
Review
“Tranter deftly explores a friendship that’s past its prime.” —Kirkus Reviews
Review
“An intimate character study of friendship and deceit set against the American paean to false appearances.” —Publishers Weekly
Review
“An introspective look at the dynamics of friendship, the power of secrets, and the nature of guilt.” —Booklist
Review
“Psychologically taut and steeped in the power of secrets among friends, A Common Loss is brimming with deft writing, revelation, and insight.” —Dominic Smith, award-winning author of Bright and Distant Shores
Review
"A Common Loss is a potent story of secrets, love, friendship, and the bonds that keep people close and is brimming with blackmail and deception and laced with grief, poetry, simmering emotional tension, and relationships both budding and exhausted." —Australian Bookseller & Publisher (Top Pick)
Synopsis
A riveting new novel about a group of friends whose longtime tensions and rivalries come to a head after one of them dies suddenly.
Synopsis
A riveting new novel about a group of friends whose longtime tensions and rivalries come to a head after one of them dies suddenly.
Synopsis
A WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS P APERBACK ORIGINAL THEY WERE ORIGINALLY FIVE. Elliot. Brian. Tallis. Cameron. And Dylan—charismatic Dylan—the mediator, the man each one turned to in a time of crisis. Five close friends, bonded in college, still coming together for their annual trip to Las Vegas. This year they are four. Four friends, sharing a common loss: Dylan’s tragic death. A common loss that, upon their arrival in Vegas, will bring with it a common threat: one that will make them question who their departed friend really was, and whether he was ever worthy of their grief.
“Brimming with blackmail and deception” and “laced with simmering emotional tension” (Australian Bookseller & Publisher), A Common Loss is a hypnotic tale from an exciting new voice in literary fiction.
About the Author
Kirsten Tranter grew up in Sydney and studied English and Fine Arts at the University of Sydney. She lived in New York between 1998 and 2006, where she completed a PhD in English on Renaissance poetry at Rutgers University. She now lives in Sydney with her husband and son and is working on a second novel.