The Spirit of the Place

The Spirit of the Place

Notorious for its Rabelaisian comedy, and celebrated for its humanism, Samuel Shemâ€™s The House of God was hailed as â€œtroubling and hilariousâ€¦brutally honestâ€ (The New York Times), a â€œCatch-22 with stethoscopesâ€ (Cosmopolitan). Now in his most ambitious novel yet, Shem returns to dissect the complicated relationships between mothers and sons, ghosts and bullies, doctors and patients, the past and the present, and love and death. Settled into a relationship with an Italian yoga instructor and working in Europe, Dr. Orville Rose's peace is shaken by his mother's death.

On his return to Columbia, a Hudson River town of quirky people and â€œplagued by breakage,â€ he learns that his mother has willed him a large sum of money, her 1981 Chrysler, and her Victorian house in the center of town. There's one odd catch: he must live in her house for one year and thirteen days. As he struggles with his decisionâ€”to stay and meet the terms of the will or return to his life in Italyâ€”Orville reconnects with family, reunites with former friends, and comes to terms with old rivals and bitter memories. In the process heâ€™ll discover his own history, as well as his motherâ€™s, and finally learn what it really means to be a healer, and to be healed.
Country USA
Manufacturer Berkley
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2012-12-04
Format Kindle eBook

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