We Are Not Ourselves |
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Author:
| Thomas, Matthew |
ISBN: | 978-0-00-754821-7 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2014 |
Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers Australia
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Imprint: | Fourth Estate |
Book Format: | Hardback |
List Price: | AUD $39.99 |
Book Description:
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD NOMINATED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES A stunning, heartbreaking debut - 'We Are Not Ourselves' is both the intimate story of a family and an epic of the American Century.
Raised in the 1940s in the mostly Irish neighbourhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, by an alcoholic mother and a union-wage father, Eileen yearns...
More DescriptionSHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD
NOMINATED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE
NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES
A stunning, heartbreaking debut - 'We Are Not Ourselves' is both the intimate story of a family and an epic of the American Century.
Raised in the 1940s in the mostly Irish neighbourhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, by an alcoholic mother and a union-wage father, Eileen yearns for more from an early age. Driven by this longing, she places her stock and love in a handsome young scientist and with him begins a family. Once her childhood neighbourhood begins to slip below her standards, she pushes against her husband's reluctance to find a home elsewhere. When it becomes clear that his reticence is part of a deeper, more incomprehensible psychological shift, the bricks of the life she thought she was building begin to crumble, and she and her son are left to grapple with a husband and a father who is, beyond their control, fading away.
In this heartbreaking debut, Thomas masterfully paints the sprawling portrait of a family that heroically weathers an extraordinary storm. It is wise to the ways in which people happen, over time and with each other.