From Powells.com
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
I have never read a book that treats family, depression, and relationships with more tenderness or grace. It’s also possible that I’ve never read a book this tragic. Adam Haslett follows a family as they grapple with the grave mental illness of their father and eldest brother, and the highs and lows along the way. While much of the book is sorrowful, Haslett is a writer with a masterful grasp of language and character, and the results are a deeply moving and powerful novel that I have urged everyone I know to read, even (especially?) as it brought me to tears. Recommended By Tim B., Powells.com
Imagine Me Gone takes a look at mental illness and its effect on family, and it doesn't get much better than how Haslett has done it here. John is afflicted, and he passes it on to his son, Michael; wife Margaret, and siblings Alec and Celia are pulled along for the ride. Trying to negotiate the ramifications of therapy, institutionalism, medication, and health care costs, Alec and Celia push for their brother's treatment, but bring about much more than they planned. So indicative of modern-day medical science's failure to treat the mentally ill with compassion (or, at all, even), Imagine Me Gone is a heartbreaking tale of a family with nowhere to turn but toward themselves. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: how far will we go to save the people we love the most?
When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings -- the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec -- struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.
Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.
With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.
Synopsis
FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION
TOP 10 NOVELS OF THE YEAR --
TIME, Newsday
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2016
-- San Francisco Chronicle
20 BOOKS THAT DEFINED OUR YEAR
-- Wall Street Journal
ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST BOOKS: Barnes & Noble, BookPage, BuzzFeed,
Elle, Financial Times, Huffington Post,
Kirkus, NPR, Refinery29,
Seattle Times, Shelf Awareness, WBUR's
On Point
Longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
"Haslett is one of the country's most talented writers, equipped with a sixth sense for characterization"
-Wall Street Journal "Ambitious and stirring . . . With
Imagine Me Gone, Haslett has reached another level."
--New York Times Book Review New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: how far will we go to save the people we love the most?
When Margaret's fiance, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings -- the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec -- struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.
Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.
With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.
Synopsis
FINALIST for the PULITZER PRIZE
LONG-LISTED for the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
WINNER of the LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
FINALIST for the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
FINALIST for the KIRKUS PRIZE
LONG-LISTED for the ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL
TOP 10 NOVELS OF THE YEAR -- TIME, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC, Newsday
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Barnes & Noble, BookPage, BuzzFeed, Elle, Financial Times, Huffington Post, Kirkus, NPR, Refinery29, Seattle Times, Shelf Awareness, WBUR's On Point
"Haslett is one of the country's most talented writers, equipped with a sixth sense for characterization" --Wall Street Journal
"Ambitious and stirring . . . With Imagine Me Gone, Haslett has reached another level." --New York Times Book Review
From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: how far will we go to save the people we love the most?
When Margaret's fiance, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings -- the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec -- struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.
Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.
With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.
Synopsis
From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: how far will we go to save the people we love the most? When Margaret's fianc e, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him.
Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings -- the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec -- struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.
Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.
With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.
"Haslett is one of the country's most talented writers, equipped with a sixth sense for characterization"-Wall Street Journal
"Ambitious and stirring . . . With Imagine Me Gone, Haslett has reached another level."-New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
TOP 10 NOVELS OF THE YEAR -- TIME, Newsday
TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2016 -- San Francisco Chronicle
20 BOOKS THAT DEFINED OUR YEAR -- Wall Street Journal
ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST BOOKS: Barnes & Noble, BookPage, BuzzFeed, Elle, Financial Times, Huffington Post, Kirkus, NPR, Refinery29, Seattle Times, Shelf Awareness, WBUR's On Point
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD and ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION
KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST
"Haslett is one of the country's most talented writers, equipped with a sixth sense for characterization."--Wall Street Journal
"Ambitious and stirring . . . With Imagine Me Gone, Haslett has reached another level." --New York Times Book Review
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: how far will we go to save the people we love the most?
When Margaret's fiance, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings -- the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec -- struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.
Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.
With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.
"
Adam Haslett on PowellsBooks.Blog
I began by writing in journals as a teenager. Though I didn’t realize it then, I was narrating a story, describing my experience to myself, and learning how to think on the page. I needed to write in those journals because so much of what was coursing through my mind felt forbidden to say anywhere else. This said, I didn’t think of myself as a writer at this point. Writing was...
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