Overview

Ellie is twenty-four years old, stuck in a dead-end job, and questioning the meaning of life when she meets the much older Calvin. It's as if her deepest wish has been granted. Star of the Buddhist teaching circuit in New York's Greenwich Village, his wisdom is exactly what she's been seeking. When she becomes the center of his attention, it's almost pure bliss... until it becomes clear that Calvin expects sex as part of the bargain. At first reluctant, Ellie gradually falls ever more deeply in love, until Calvin is all she can think about. Calvin's lectures stress the Buddhist concept of non-attachment, but that doesn't salve her wounds when he abandons her. Suddenly alone, Ellie must find a way to heal from her loss-but not before devotion to her teacher takes her halfway across the world to Tibet, and puts her life in real danger. Hope for the Worst asks how far we will go for love, and what happens when we reach our limit.

Full Product Details

9786185728021

Table of Contents

Reviews

Hope for the Worst is a novel that speaks to our moment. It is concerned with the largest questions: how do we live? how not to suffer? how to be where we are? In all seasons the narrator names the world as it passes before her, vibrant, reverberating in time. But by the end of this remarkable story the narrator not only takes us to where she is. By her patient chronicling she allows us to see our own lives with new eyes. Kathleen Hill, author of She Read to Us in the Late Afternoons What an extraordinary book Kate Brandt has written. Hope for the Worst is a tale of high ideas and high longing, with an untrustworthy guru and New York in its most desperate years. I loved the wild turns the story takes in the Himalayan edges of Asia, and the dangers the writing leads us through. It's a riveting book that will make its mark on all readers. Joan Silber, author of The Secrets of Happiness and Improvement In her startling, sensual novel Hope for the Worst, Kate Brandt embarks on a thrilling journey into the heart of Buddhist thought on pain, truth, and desire. Her hero is searching for wisdom while on a perilous journey of self-discovery, but as a deceptive teacher attempts to shape her and control her, she risks losing herself in the quest. With a thoughtful, sensitive eye for detail, Brandt makes the pressing questions of female spirituality, and the place of women in contemporary Buddhism, feel vital. This story will pull you deep into the thorny beauty of American Buddhism - and leave you wondering and moved. Blair Hurley, author of The Devoted In exquisite prose, Brandt's novel pulses with vivid observations of what we do in the search for love. I was gripped by deeply wounded and philosophical Ellie Adkins, an insomniac, as she navigates an uneven power balance with her lovers in 1980s New York City and Tibet. Capturing the twists and turns in Ellie's quest for healing, the novel is structured in lyrical journal entries and letters. This is a novel with many lessons for living, rendered in beautiful form. Jimin Han, author of The Apology and A Small Revolution Kate Brandt's extraordinary novel, Hope for the Worst, is just the kind of book I love - intimate and finely observed, yet chock-full of big ideas and profound questions. We fall in love with her unforgettable young narrator, Ellie, who, new to New York City, struggles with loneliness, depression and a hunger for meaning. With a wry eye, Brandt draws a vivid portrait of the snake-oil guru who preys on that vulnerability with the promise of deeper truth. We follow Ellie across the globe in her effort to escape her obsession and find her own truth. I could not put this book down. I look forward to reading it again and again. Deborah Zoe Laufer, playwright, End Days and Be Here Now

Author Information

Kate Brandt's work has appeared in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Literary Mama, The Westchester Review, Ginosko and Redivider, among other journals. She teaches adult literacy students in New York City and lives in Westchester County, New York. Visit katebrandt.net.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available