Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel

Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER â€¢ For fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, Lorrie Moore, and Curtis Sittenfeld, Among the Ten Thousand Things is a dazzling first novel, a portrait of an American family on the cusp of irrevocable change, and a startlingly original story of love and time lost.
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Jack Shanley is a well-known New York artist, charming and vain, who doesnâ€™t mean to plunge his family into crisis. His wife, Deb, gladly left behind a difficult career as a dancer to raise the two children she adores. In the ensuing years, she has mostly avoided coming face-to-face with the weaknesses of the man she married. But then an anonymously sent package arrives in the mail: a cardboard box containing sheaves of printed emails chronicling Jackâ€™s secret life. The package is addressed to Deb, but itâ€™s delivered into the wrong hands: her childrenâ€™s.
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With this vertiginous opening begins a debut that is by turns funny, wise, and indescribably moving. As the Shanleys spin apart into separate orbits, leaving New York in an attempt to regain their bearings, fifteen-year-old Simon feels the allure of adult freedoms for the first time, while eleven-year-old Kay wanders precariously into a grown-up world she canâ€™t possibly understand. Writing with extraordinary precision, humor, and beauty, Julia Pierpont has crafted a timeless, hugely enjoyable novel about the bonds of family lifeâ€”their brittleness, and their resilience.
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Praise for Among the Ten Thousand Things
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â€œA luscious, smart summer novel . . . about a family blown apart and yet still painfully tethered together, written by a blazingly talented young author whose prose is so assured and whose observations are so precise and deeply felt that itâ€™s almost an insult to bring up her age.â€â€”Helen Schulman, The New York Times Book Review
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â€œ[An] excellent, insightful first novel . . . a gripping portrait of the disintegration of the Shanley family . . . Pierpont brings this family of four to life in sharply observed detail. . . . An acute observer of social comedy, Ms. Pierpont has a keen eye for the absurd.â€â€”Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal
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â€œPierpontâ€™s language is heart-stopping. . . . Technically, of course, this is a domestic drama. But between Pierpontâ€™s literary finesse and her captivating characters, it reads like a page-turner. [Grade:] Aâ€â€”Entertainment Weekly
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â€œThere are going to be as many ingenious twists and turns in this literary novel as there are in a top-notch work of suspense like Gone Girl.â€â€”Maureen Corrigan, NPRâ€™s Fresh Air

â€œTender, delicately perceptive . . . Pierpontâ€™s voice is wry and confident, and she is a fine anthropologist of New York life.â€â€”The Washington Post
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â€œBracing . . . Pierpontâ€™s killer ending reveals the long reach of the affairâ€™s consequences (sorry, no plot spoilers). Consider this a twisty, gripping storyâ€”that packs an emotional wallop.â€â€”O: The Oprah Magazine
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â€œAÂ debut so honest and mature that it will resonate with even the most action-hungry readersâ€”perhaps against reason. Her story is the one weâ€™ll be talking about this summer, and well beyond.â€â€”Meredith Turits, Vanity Fair
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â€œPierpont displays a precocious gift for language and observation. . . . She captures the minutiae of loneliness that pushes us away from each other and sometimes brings us back.â€â€”San Francisco Chronicle

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2015-07-07
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2015-07-07
Format	Kindle eBook

Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel

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