Secrets of happiness : a novel / Joan Silber.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Berkeley, California : Counterpoint, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First hardcover editionDescription: 275 pages ; 22 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781640094451
- 1640094458
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Dr. James Carlson Library | Fiction | SILBER, JOAN | Available | 33111009809878 | ||||
|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | Fiction | SILBER, JOAN | Available | 33111010516272 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
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.
"The novel begins with the character of Ethan, a lawyer living in New York City who tells us the story of his family's life just as they learn his father--a textile manufacturer who spent long trips throughout Asia--has fathered a secret family from a woman he met on one of his trips and set up in a house in Queens. From here, we move to different related characters as the novel expands outward to the woman, her sons, a few surprise relations, some unexpected twists and turns, ending the novel back with Ethan as he might finally learn the hard lessons of love, family, and, perhaps, happiness. What is the measure of a life well-lived, or well-loved? How connected are we to those around us and can happiness be found in acknowledging and embracing those connections, and what happens when they cannot be seen? What is the true value of family, however it is defined, and how can money and the pursuit of material things guide or obfuscate this equation?"-- Provided by publisher.