The Border of Paradise: A Novel

Author:   Esmé Weijun Wang
Publisher:   Unnamed Press
ISBN:  

9781939419699


Pages:   292
Publication Date:   28 April 2016
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Our Price $44.88 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

The Border of Paradise: A Novel


Add your own review!

Overview

A remarkable multigenerational novel, The Border of Paradise transports readers into the world of an iconoclastic midcentury family. In booming postwar Brooklyn, the Nowak Piano Company is an American success story. There is just one problem: the Nowak's only son, David. A handsome kid and shy like his mother, David struggles with neuroses. If not for his only friend, Marianne, David's life would be intolerable. When David inherits the piano company at just 18 and Marianne breaks things off, David sells the company and travels around the world. In Taiwan, his life changes when he meets the daughter of a local madame -- beautiful, sharp-tongued Daisy. Returning to the United States, the couple (and newborn son) buy an isolated country house in Northern California's Polk Valley. As David's mental health deteriorates, he has a brief affair with Marianne, producing a daughter. When Marianne appears at their doorstep, the couple's fateful decision to take the child as their own determines a tragic course of events for the entire family. Told from multiple perspectives, The Border of Paradise culminates in heartrending fashion, as the young heirs to the Nowak fortune must confront their past and the tragic reality of their future.

Full Product Details

Author:   Esmé Weijun Wang
Publisher:   Unnamed Press
Imprint:   Unnamed Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.354kg
ISBN:  

9781939419699


ISBN 10:   1939419697
Pages:   292
Publication Date:   28 April 2016
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Gothic in tone, epic in ambition, and creepy in spades. --Kirkus Reviews The Border of Paradise is a magnificent achievement -- an exhortation for human tenderness and individual dignity in the most difficult of circumstances. Wang explores identity and family with a sense of drama that borders on gothic, without ever sacrificing the psychological texture that connects us to her characters. --Adrienne Celt, author of The Daughters Esme Weijun Wang's relentlessly moving debut The Border of Paradise is a profound epic of potent darkness with all sorts of unexpected light. The story of the Nowak family contains notes of Lidia Yuknavitch, Christine Schutt, and Kevin Wilson, and yet remains unlike anything I've ever read. Trauma is rendered gorgeously, from every angle, within every possibility. Whether tackling New York, California, or Taiwan, Wang performs this novel with glorious courage, ambition, passion, and style. --Porochista Khakpour, author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion A stunning meditation on the meaning of marriage, the limits of language, and the inescapable solitude of the mind. Esme Weijun Wang's writing is spellbinding; her characters are hauntingly alive. --Jennifer DuBois, author of Cartwheel


Gothic in tone, epic in ambition, and creepy in spades. --Kirkus Reviews One of Library Journal's picks for Top Spring Indie Fiction: A well-wrought multigenerational novel that also appeals for its honest look at mental illness. -Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal One of the Lit Hub's Books to Read in April: Wang takes Ahab's rant of... 'madness maddened' and infuses it through all of the characters in this book, not just the ones who are identified as crazy. A terrifying look at dysfunction, manipulation, and psychological torture and love, yes love. A very deftly written first novel. --The Lit Hub One of the Chicago Review of Books Best Books from Independent Presses in April Esme Weijun Wang's new novel focuses on the complex relationships among a family with a prosperous business in the post-war United States, and the conflicts and questions of family that occur over time. --Vol. 1 Brooklyn The Border of Paradise is a magnificent achievement -- an exhortation for human tenderness and individual dignity in the most difficult of circumstances. Wang explores identity and family with a sense of drama that borders on gothic, without ever sacrificing the psychological texture that connects us to her characters. --Adrienne Celt, author of The Daughters Esme Weijun Wang's relentlessly moving debut The Border of Paradise is a profound epic of potent darkness with all sorts of unexpected light. The story of the Nowak family contains notes of Lidia Yuknavitch, Christine Schutt, and Kevin Wilson, and yet remains unlike anything I've ever read. Trauma is rendered gorgeously, from every angle, within every possibility. Whether tackling New York, California, or Taiwan, Wang performs this novel with glorious courage, ambition, passion, and style. --Porochista Khakpour, author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion A stunning meditation on the meaning of marriage, the limits of language, and the inescapable solitude of the mind. Esme Weijun Wang's writing is spellbinding; her characters are hauntingly alive. --Jennifer DuBois, author of Cartwheel


Author Information

Esme Weijun Wang is an award-winning mental health advocate and speaker, as well as a journalist and essayist. The Border of Paradise is her first novel. She lives in San Francisco.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

ls

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List