Overview

“Casey Scieszka’s debut novel is absolutely delicious, like Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups. The premise is so good—an immortal woman’s search for the fountain of youth—that the writing, crisp and funny, feels like an extra treat. An excellent debut.”—Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow A propulsive and deeply moving novel about eternity and mortality that asks what it would mean to live forever. Vera Van Valkenburgh hasn’t been home in one hundred and eighty-eight years. But now Vera, forever twenty-six and able to heal from any wound, has returned to the Catskills. Whatever made her family immortal happened here, and if she can uncover it, maybe she can reverse it. After nearly two centuries—an endless sequence of unnoticed, meaningless lives and a soul-shaking incident in the desert—she longs to be released. Posing as a newly arrived forest ranger, she quickly blends into the upstate community and learns of something curious and disturbing. A mysterious, well-funded company is snapping up local property, no matter how high the asking price. But when her brother, a fellow immortal shows up, accompanied by a woman whose face is incredibly familiar to Vera, the purpose for her return gets clouded and Vera is in a race against time to find out what has caused her condition before someone else does. Blending the spectacular with the everyday in a tale filled with humor and warmth, The Fountain explores what gives life meaning and how our understandings of our histories shape—and cage—us.

Full Product Details

9780063393400

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Casey Scieszka's debut novel is absolutely delicious, like Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups. The premise is so good--an immortal woman's search for the fountain of youth--that the writing, crisp and funny, feels like an extra treat. An excellent debut."" -- Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow ""Casey Scieszka's The Fountain is a meditation on beauty, nature, and what in our lives can be bought and sold (and at what cost). Hilarious yet tender, Scieszka's alluring voice shines on the page as she guides us through the joys and pains of never growing old amongst the majestic landscape of the Catskills. Here is a page-turner of a novel that is book club-ready, a frothy combination of magical realism, the foibles of modern life, an examination of the influence of big tech, along with a wallop of small town heart."" -- Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts ""This book is perfection! Bold, wickedly fun and razor sharp. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I read it. Will keep you turning pages late into the night. Enthralling, engrossing and deftly crafted!"" -- Jo Piazza, bestselling co-author of Good Morning America Book Club pick We Are Not Like Them and You Were Always Mine ""Casey Scieszka explores the double-edged blade of immortality so incisively I wondered if she might be immortal herself. The Fountain is a fascinating quest for meaning, a love letter to the Catskills, but above all a testament to the ways in which family and home can make a life--of any length--worth living."" -- Aimee Pokwatka, author of Self-Portrait with Nothing

""Casey Scieszka's debut novel is absolutely delicious, like Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups. The premise is so good—an immortal woman's search for the fountain of youth—that the writing, crisp and funny, feels like an extra treat. An excellent debut."" — Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow “Casey Scieszka's The Fountain is a meditation on beauty, nature, and what in our lives can be bought and sold (and at what cost). Hilarious yet tender, Scieszka's alluring voice shines on the page as she guides us through the joys and pains of never growing old amongst the majestic landscape of the Catskills. Here is a page-turner of a novel that is book club-ready, a frothy combination of magical realism, the foibles of modern life, an examination of the influence of big tech, along with a wallop of small town heart.” — Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts  ""The Fountain is wildly entertaining, deeply intelligent, and genuinely moving. The heroine Vera, her many lives and attempted deaths, her suffering and tentative hope, left a mark on me. Casey Scieszka has masterfully built a true mystery laced with questions of immortality, capitalism, and technology—but embedded within are the questions of what makes a meaningful life? How do we live with our past, and how do we forgive ourselves?"" — Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter “This book is perfection! Bold, wickedly fun and razor sharp. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it. Will keep you turning pages late into the night. Enthralling, engrossing and deftly crafted!”  — Jo Piazza, bestselling co-author of Good Morning America Book Club pick We Are Not Like Them and The Sicilian Inheritance “Casey Scieszka explores the double-edged blade of immortality so incisively I wondered if she might be immortal herself. The Fountain is a fascinating quest for meaning, a love letter to the Catskills, but above all a testament to the ways in which family and home can make a life—of any length—worth living.” — Aimee Pokwatka, author of Self-Portrait with Nothing 

Author Information

Casey Scieszka is a born and raised Brooklynite who has lived in Beijing, San Francisco, Fez, and Timbuktu where she was a Fulbright Scholar. In 2013 she and her husband, artist Steven Weinberg, moved to the Catskill Mountains and opened the Spruceton Inn: a Catskills Bed & Bar, which runs an annual Artist Residency hosting world-renowned painters, bestselling authors, and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalists.

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