Staff Pick
Harry Silver commits a sin that will forever change his life, and no amount of foresight could have prepared him for what follows. Harry's brother, George, is suddenly out of the picture, and Harry is left with George's house, his two children, his pets, and all of George's many problems. Harry soon finds himself sucked into Internet "dating," trouble at work, a medical crisis, and a looming divorce. Yet, on this slippery slope, Harry somehow manages to latch onto the one thing that will give his new life meaning: his niece and nephew.
As much as you want to dislike Harry — and believe me, you do — he grows in such a way that it's impossible to do so. Homes showcases her brilliant ability to crawl inside a character and share every tiny nuance and quirk. Harry's long climb out of the morass he's created, into redemption, is lovely to watch. Homes throws in a hefty dose of heart and a ton of absurdist humor, along with her slightly skewed commentary on modern life, making May We Be Forgiven an odd mix of hilarity and poignant sweetness. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A big American story with big American themes” (Elle) from the author of the New York Timesbestselling memoir The Mistresss Daughter In this vivid, transfixing new novel, A. M. Homes presents a darkly comic look at twenty-first-century domestic life and the possibility of personal transformation. Harold Silver has spent a lifetime watching his more successful younger brother, George, acquire a covetable wife, two kids, and a beautiful home in the suburbs of New York City. When Georges murderous temper results in a shocking act of violence, both men are hurled into entirely new lives. May We Be Forgiven digs deeply into the near biblical intensity of fraternal relationships, our need to make sense of things, and our craving for connection. It is an unnerving tale of unexpected intimacies and of how one deeply fractured family might begin to put itself back together.
Synopsis
Winner of the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction--A darkly comic novel of twenty-first-century domestic life by a writer who is always "compelling, devastating, and furiously good" (Zadie Smith) Harold Silver has spent a lifetime watching his younger brother, George, a taller, smarter, and more successful high-flying TV executive, acquire a covetable wife, two kids, and a beautiful home in the suburbs of New York City. But Harry, a historian and Nixon scholar, also knows George has a murderous temper, and when George loses control the result is an act of violence so shocking that both brothers are hurled into entirely new lives in which they both must seek absolution.
Harry finds himself suddenly playing parent to his brother's two adolescent children, tumbling down the rabbit hole of Internet sex, dealing with aging parents who move through time like travelers on a fantastic voyage. As Harry builds a twenty-first-century family created by choice rather than biology, we become all the more aware of the ways in which our history, both personal and political, can become our destiny and either compel us to repeat our errors or be the catalyst for change.
May We Be Forgiven is an unnerving, funny tale of unexpected intimacies and of how one deeply fractured family might begin to put itself back together.
About the Author
A. M. Homes is the author of five novels, most recently This Book Will Save Your Life; two collections of stories; and the memoir The Mistresss Daughter. Her fiction and essays have been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Harpers, Granta, and One Story. She lives in New York City.