Synopses & Reviews
One of the Best Books of the Summer — as chosen by Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Amazon, The Daily Beast, Kirkus Reviews, Good Housekeeping, AFAR magazine, and Bookish.
“A dazzling debut by an essential new talent.” — George Saunders
“Unforgettable…a powerful new literary voice.” — Mary Karr
“Exceptional…Reed is an author to watch.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Sol and Liz are a couple on the cusp. He’s a professional cyclist in the Tour de France, a workhorse but not yet a star. She’s a geneticist on the brink of a major discovery — either that or a loss of funding. They’ve just welcomed their first child into the world, and their bright future lies just before them — if only they can reach out and grab it.
But as Liz’s research slows, as Sol starts doping, their dreams grow murkier and the risks graver. Over the whirlwind course of the Tour, they enter the orbit of an extraordinary cast of con-men and aspirants, who draw the young family ineluctably into the depths of an illegal drug smuggling operation. As Liz and Sol flounder to discern right from wrong, up from down, they are forced to decide: What is it we’re striving for? And what is it worth?
We Begin Our Ascent dances nimbly between tragic and comic, exploring the cost of ambition and the question of what gives our lives meaning. Reed melds the powerful themes of great marital dramas like Revolutionary Road with the humor, character, and heart of a George Saunders collection. Throughout, we’re drawn inside the cycling world and treated to the brilliant literary sports writing of modern classics like The Art of Fielding or End Zone.
Review
“A dazzling debut by an exciting and essential new talent: fast, harrowing, compelling, masterfully structured, genuinely moving. Reed is a true stylist and has, like James Salter before him, a gift for making a physical world that is very naturally imbued with rich metaphorical meaning. This novel is a heartening reminder of what happens when a keen intelligence is applied to a rarefied subject.” George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo
Review
“Exceptional....Reed's first novel lives squarely within Don DeLillo's sphere of influence...but Reed relies more heavily on plot than DeLillo, and the effect is remarkably successful: Alongside the ideas and the jokes, there is real suspense and human drama....Fast and smart, funny and sad, this is an outstanding sports novel, and Reed is an author to watch.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
“Joe Mungo Reed’s unforgettable debut novel, We Begin Our Ascent, introduces us to a powerful new literary voice — as riveting as DeLillo’s or Morrison’s. On the surface, this is a book about doping in the Tour de France, but it’s really about marriage and masculinity, competition and loyalty, and a sense of aspiration that blooms a person open and simultaneously shuts him tight as a clamshell. I read it cover to cover in a gulp. Bravo!” Mary Karr, author of The Art of Memoir and The Liars’ Club
Review
“This novel will hook you…and haunt you. Embroidered with a sly humor — and insider details about the cycling world — the novel explores the sacrifices we’re willing to make for our dreams, climbing steadily toward its stunning climax.” AFAR Magazine, “10 Must-Read Books for Summer”
Review
“From page one, Joe Mungo Reed will make you a cycling convert with his ability to convey the often quiet beauty, struggle, and competition of the sport. While the stages of the Tour keep the wheels of the plot spinning, it is the portrait of two ambitious people trying to work through the shades of grey in the choices they make in the pursuit of their dreams and the unfolding of their marriage that will keep you turning the pages.”
The Daily Beast, “The Best Summer Beach Reads of 2018”
Synopsis
" A] small, tight bud of a first novel...You hotly flip this book's pages." --The New York Times "A dazzling debut by an essential new talent." --George Saunders "Unforgettable...a powerful new literary voice." --Mary Karr One of the Best Books of the Summer--as chosen by Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Amazon, The Daily Beast, Kirkus Reviews, Good Housekeeping, Christian Science Monitor, AFAR, and Bookish.
Sol and Liz are a couple on the cusp. He's a professional cyclist in the Tour de France, a workhorse but not yet a star. She's a geneticist on the brink of a major discovery, either that or a loss of funding. They've just welcomed their first child into the world, and their bright future lies just before them--if only they can reach out and grab it.
But as Liz's research slows, as Sol starts doping, their dreams grow murkier and the risks graver. Over the whirlwind course of the Tour, they enter the orbit of an extraordinary cast of conmen and aspirants, who draw the young family ineluctably into the depths of an illegal drug smuggling operation. As Liz and Sol flounder to discern right from wrong, up from down, they are forced to decide: What is it we're striving for? And what is it worth?
We Begin Our Ascent dances nimbly between tragic and comic, exploring the cost of ambition and the question of what gives our lives meaning. Reed melds the powerful themes of great marital dramas like Revolutionary Road with the humor, character, and heart of a George Saunders collection. Throughout, we're drawn inside the cycling world and treated to the brilliant literary sports-writing of modern classics like The Art of Fielding or End Zone.
About the Author
Joe Mungo Reed was born in London and raised in Gloucestershire, England. He has a master’s in philosophy and politics at the University of Edinburgh and an MFA in creative writing at Syracuse University, where he won the Joyce Carol Oates Award in Fiction. He is the author of the novel, We Begin Our Ascent, and his short stories have appeared in VQR and Gigantic and anthologized in Best of Gigantic. He is currently living in Edinburgh, UK.
Joe Mungo Reed on PowellsBooks.Blog
I realized that I wanted to write a book about cycling in the fall of 2012. As a casual fan of the sport, I had been following the slow drip of revelations about Lance Armstrong’s drug use over the previous months, interested in the extent of the scandal and in the way these discoveries recast the recent history of races I remembered...
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