The Stay-In Weather Sale: 20% off select books
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Award Winners
    • Signed Preorders
    • Signed Editions
    • Digital Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Book Club Subscriptions
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts + Gift Cards
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Read Rise Resist Gear
    • Journals & Notebooks
    • Games
    • Socks
  • Sell Books
    • Sell Books Online
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store
McAfee Secure

  • The Stay-In Weather Sale
  • Kids' Graphic Novels Sale
  • Our 2021 TBR List
  • Books That Got Us Through 2020
  • Winter 20% Off Sale
  • Save 20% on OBOB Books

Visit Our Stores


Jeremy Garber: New Literature in Translation: January 2021 Edition (0 comment)
Whatever your reasons, we’re certain you’ll find enough new books each month to sate even the most voracious literary appetite...
Read More»
  • Janice P. Nimura: Stand in the Place Where They Were (2 comments)
  • Eden Dawn: Three Winter Dates to Do in Portland Right Now (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Did You Ever Have A Family

by Bill Clegg
Did You Ever Have A Family

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Read an Interview

ISBN13: 9781476798172
ISBN10: 1476798176
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
$10.95
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
2Local Warehouse

From Powells.com

Staff Top Fives 2015

Our favorite books of the year.


Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

The stunning debut novel from bestselling author Bill Clegg is a magnificently powerful story about a circle of people who find solace in the least likely of places as they cope with a horrific tragedy. On the eve of her daughter's wedding, June Reidand's life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke — her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor.

Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding's caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke's mother, the shattered outcast of the town and everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light.

Elegant and heartrending, and one of the most accomplished fiction debuts of the year, Did You Ever Have a Family is an absorbing, unforgettable tale that reveals humanity at its best through forgiveness and hope. At its core is a celebration of family — the ones we are born with and the ones we create.

Review

"An attempt to map how the unbearable is borne, elegantly written and bravely imagined." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Review

"A propulsive but tightly crafted narrative...reveal[s] the fine-grained sorrows of the human condition, rendered in polished, quietly captivating prose. As the stories emerge, so do their connections — and the idea of connection itself....Readers may come to this debut novel because of agent/memoirist Clegg's reputation, but they'll stay for the stellar language and storytelling. Highly recommended." Library Journal, starred review

Review

"Clegg is both delicately lyrical and emotionally direct in this masterful novel, which strives to show how people make bearable what is unbearable, offering consolation in small but meaningful gestures. Both ineffably sad and deeply inspiring, this mesmerizing novel makes for a powerful debut." Booklist, starred review

Review

"I marveled my way through Did You Ever Have a Family, at not just the masterful writing and storytelling, but at the emotional authenticities of every persuasion. It's a wondrous thing when a writer gets things this right, this absorbing, and this beautiful. Bravo, Bill Clegg, and thank you." Elinor Lipman, author of The View from Penthouse B

Review

"Full of small-town secrets and whispers, Bill Clegg has woven a richly textured tale of loss and healing. This is a deeply optimistic book about the power of human sympathy to pull us from the wreckage of our fate." Anne Enright, Man Booker Prize winner for The Gathering

Review

"The force, range, and scope of Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family will grab you with its opening lines, and won't let go until its final one. I can't recall another novel that so effortlessly weds a nuanced, lyrical voice to an unflinching vision of just how badly things can go for people. I read it deep into the night, all the way through, telling myself it was getting late, I could finish the book in the morning. I finished it that night, however, slept a few hours, and then, in the morning, started reading it again." Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

Review

"Like the question it poses, Did You Ever Have a Family is brutally direct yet it's got an enormous symbolic power. You hold in your hands a great book of kindness — every restrained, exquisite sentence comes loaded for bear. It's been a lot of years since a novel has so moved me. Number Bill Clegg among that endangered species: major American writer." Darin Strauss, author of Chang & Eng

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, MAN BOOKER PRIZE, PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE, AND ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE AN ALA NOTABLE BOOK NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Amazon Library Journal Booklist NPR Kirkus Reviews Guardian St. Louis Post-Dispatch Google Play Kobo Literary Hub Powell s Indie Next List
Hailed as masterly by The New York Times Book Review, a brilliantly constructed debut set in the aftermath of catastrophic loss (2015 Man Booker Prize Judges).
The stunning debut novel from bestselling author Bill Clegg is a magnificently powerful story about a circle of people who find solace in the least likely of places as they cope with a horrific tragedy.
On the eve of her daughter s wedding, June Reid s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter s fiance, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor.
Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.
From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding s caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke s mother, the shattered outcast of the town everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light.
Elegant and heartrending, and one of the most accomplished fiction debuts of the year, Did You Ever Have a Family is an absorbing, unforgettable tale that reveals humanity at its best through forgiveness and hope. At its core is a celebration of family the ones we are born with and the ones we create."

About the Author

Bill Clegg is a literary agent in New York and the author of the bestselling memoirs Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man and Ninety Days. He has written for The New York Times, Lapham’s Quarterly, New York magazine, The Guardian, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Bill Clegg on PowellsBooks.Blog

In January of this year, eight months before its release date, the buzz was already starting to build for Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family. Bookseller colleagues were passing around the few advance reader copies we could get a ...

Read More»


4.5 2

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 4.5 (2 comments)

`
Cheryl Petersen , October 13, 2015 (view all comments by Cheryl Petersen)
I LOVE THIS BOOK!! The writing is so fabulous and each voice, even if not recurring, is so important to the story and the clear picture that the author reveals to you page by page. This is truly a book to experience - not just read. I will recommend it to everyone I know. As I was drawn, no pulled to the end of the story I felt every emotion that one could feel for these characters (being careful here not to reveal anything here) - but it is true. I only have three words for anyone.... READ THIS BOOK. This is one of my favorite books this year .... ever..... I finished it yesterday and am still thinking of it today. What a fabulous journey.... things come full circle - truths are told and I will never forget this book. Thank you Mr. Clegg and to Powell's for making this the Indespensible selection this month!

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Tisa , September 13, 2015 (view all comments by Tisa)
"She closes her eyes and listens. No one calls her name, there are no more footsteps behind her, but still she turns around....She takes a long, late-day look at the town where she has lived her whole life, where there are no friends, no family, but where her feet are famous to the sidewalks." A horrific tragedy can bring about pain, guilt, anger, fear, doubt, panic, and numbness, and the characters in this tragic novel experience all of these emotions but in varying degrees of intensity. There are several types of families represented, and each one has a unique part to play in the drama. The definition of "family" expands as the story progresses. Chapters jump from past to present, character to character, and I found myself re-reading to make sure I was remembering correctly, but that technique is a successful one after the first few chapters. When you finish the book, go back and read the first couple of chapters again for a clearer understanding of plot points. (I do that with every book.) This novel is long-listed for the Booker Prize.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(4 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment




Product Details

ISBN:
9781476798172
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
09/01/2015
Publisher:
SIMON & SCHUSTER TRADE
Pages:
304
Height:
1.20IN
Width:
5.70IN
Thickness:
1.00
Author:
Bill Clegg
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$10.95
List Price:$26.00
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
2Local Warehouse

More copies of this ISBN

  • Signed, Used, Hardcover, $14.95

This title in other editions

  • New, Trade Paperback, $16.00
  • Used, Trade Paperback, $7.50
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2021 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##