Secrets of happiness : a novel
by Silber, Joan,
| Print Book 2021 |
| Available at 16 Libraries 16 of 16 copies |
Summary
A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
When a man discovers his father in New York has long had another, secret, family--a wife and two kids--the interlocking fates of both families lead to surprise loyalties, love triangles, and a reservoir of inner strength in this "expansive and elegantly crafted novel" (Fresh Air, NPR).
"Rich with the complexities of life . . . the stories create a world made fully dimensional through changes of perspective--major characters appear and reappear as part of one or another's experience and testimony . . . Pull any life's thread and you discover a mesh of involvement that soon takes in all the others. It is a fine thing, subtly done, and truly exhilarating." -- The Wall Street Journal
Ethan, a young lawyer in New York, learns that his father has long kept a second family--a Thai wife and two kids living in Queens. In the aftermath of this revelation, Ethan's mother spends a year working abroad, returning much changed, as events introduce her to the other wife. Across town, Ethan's half brothers are caught in their own complicated journeys: one brother's penchant for minor delinquency has escalated, and the other must travel to Bangkok to bail him out, while the bargains their mother has struck about love and money continue to shape their lives.
As Ethan finds himself caught in a love triangle of his own, the interwoven fates of these two households elegantly unfurl to encompass a woman rallying to help an ill brother with an unreliable lover and a filmmaker with a girlhood spent in Nepal. Evoking a generous and humane spirit, and a story that ranges over three continents, Secrets of Happiness elucidates the ways people marshal the resources at hand to forge their own forms of joy.
When a man discovers his father in New York has long had another, secret, family--a wife and two kids--the interlocking fates of both families lead to surprise loyalties, love triangles, and a reservoir of inner strength in this "expansive and elegantly crafted novel" (Fresh Air, NPR).
"Rich with the complexities of life . . . the stories create a world made fully dimensional through changes of perspective--major characters appear and reappear as part of one or another's experience and testimony . . . Pull any life's thread and you discover a mesh of involvement that soon takes in all the others. It is a fine thing, subtly done, and truly exhilarating." -- The Wall Street Journal
Ethan, a young lawyer in New York, learns that his father has long kept a second family--a Thai wife and two kids living in Queens. In the aftermath of this revelation, Ethan's mother spends a year working abroad, returning much changed, as events introduce her to the other wife. Across town, Ethan's half brothers are caught in their own complicated journeys: one brother's penchant for minor delinquency has escalated, and the other must travel to Bangkok to bail him out, while the bargains their mother has struck about love and money continue to shape their lives.
As Ethan finds himself caught in a love triangle of his own, the interwoven fates of these two households elegantly unfurl to encompass a woman rallying to help an ill brother with an unreliable lover and a filmmaker with a girlhood spent in Nepal. Evoking a generous and humane spirit, and a story that ranges over three continents, Secrets of Happiness elucidates the ways people marshal the resources at hand to forge their own forms of joy.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Publisher's Weekly Review: "
Additional Information
| Subjects |
Family secrets
-- Fiction.
Happiness -- Fiction. Extended families -- Fiction. Families -- Fiction. Brothers -- Fiction. New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction. Bangkok (Thailand) -- Fiction. Domestic fiction. |
| Publisher | Berkeley, California :Counterpoint,2021 |
| Edition | First hardcover edition. |
| Language |
English |
| Description |
275 pages ; 22 cm |
| ISBN | 9781640094451 1640094458 |
| Other | Classic View |