Format :
Library CD (In Stock)
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2 Formats: Library CD
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2 Formats: Playaway
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ISBN: 9781619699229
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ISBN: 9781619699243
| Runtime: | 7.15 Hours |
| Category: | Fiction/Literary |
| Audience: | Adult |
| Language: | English |
Summary
Summary
A New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2013
An Amazon Top 100 Book of 2013
A 2013 New York Times Editor’s Choice
A 2013 Washington Post Notable Book for Fiction
A Huffington Post Best Book of 2013
A BookPage Best Book of 2013
One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2013 in Fiction
Selected for the February 2013 Indie Next List
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
Attending summer camp as a boy, Erik Schroder, a first generation East German immigrant, adopts the name Eric Kennedy, a decision that will set him on an improbable and transformative journey. Years later, Erik escapes to Lake Champlain, Vermont, with his daughter, hiding from authorities amidst a heated custody battle with his estranged wife, Laura, who is unaware of his previous identity. From a correctional facility, Erik surveys the course of his life: his love for Laura, his childhood, and his experience as a father. Schroder is a sweeping, deftly imagined exploration of the identities we take on in our lives, those we are born with, and those we construct for ourselves.
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
“Strikingly original.” —Reader’s Digest
“Gaige’s spot-on prose makes this quirky
parental drama irresistible.” —Good Housekeeping
“Impossible to put down…Gaige completely creates
this alternative universe, and it is entirely suspenseful as readers are drawn
to the Schroder/Kennedy character. It’s a credit to Gaige’s talents that she
can create such a morally complex character.” —Chicago Tribune
“Brilliantly written…What could be a hackneyed
novelistic trope—the confessional letter—is completely transformed in Gaige’s
sure and insightful hands…Schroder is
a haunting look at the extreme desire for love and family, and how the mind can
justify that need to possess what it cannot have. Almost, just almost, Schroder
has us rooting for him.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer
“It’s a fine line, sometimes, between disturbing
and enrapturing. Amity Gaige’s new novel, Schroder,
treads that thrilling line—swiftly, and on tiptoe…Despite his criminal behavior, our intimacy with Eric
makes his behavior, and this story, more tragic than enraging. Does he love his
daughter? We know that he thinks he does. But does carting her across state
lines—in a stolen car, no less—constitute love? Who’s to say? Schroder certainly doesn’t give us an
easy answer. But it digs deeply, satisfyingly, disturbingly into the question…[Gaige
has] created a riveting tale, at once infuriating, heartbreaking and human.” —Denver Post
“A superb novel…Gaige makes fraudulent, kidnapping
Eric utterly sympathetic—heartbreakingly so—which is part of this book’s
intelligence and depth. We have so little distance from him that we become
myopic in our desire to have his outrageous escapade work, even though we know
it cannot.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Terrific…Schroder
grabs you early on, holds you with its lyrical prose and surprising insights,
and lingers in the mind long afterward.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Prepare to be captivated by Schroder, a riveting novel by Amity
Gaige with a unique and incredibly creative voice…Schroder is a book to be digested slowly, reread, and discussed. It’s
quite a wild ride, but the miles fly by with Amity Gaige at the wheel.” —Missourian
“With Schroder
Gaige has created a narrator who, while flawed and frustrating, is intensely
lovable…Schroder is a touching story
of parental alienation.” —Wisconsin State Journal
“Schroder
is a beautifully told story about how a father’s undeniable love for his young
child can be distorted by the pressure he experiences at the thought of being
cut off from her…We all are destined to fall short of our expectations, to fail
to match our lovingly painted self-portraits, some of us more dramatically and
tragically than others. It’s but one of many penetrating insights that
transport Amity Gaige’s novel from the realm of mere artifice to the status of real
art.” —BookReporter.com
“Schroder,
the heartbreaking tale of a man who kidnaps his 6-year-old daughter, could…Amity
Gaige’s breakout work. Starring a doggedly compelling lead character and Gaige’s
signature smooth prose, this novel wows with its exacting, subtle grace…Gaige
is a talent who deserves attention.” —BookPage
“Quiet and deeply introspective… Although Eric
is often unreliable, Gaige conjures a groundswell of sympathy for an otherwise
repugnant character. Tender moments of observation, regret, and joy—all
conveyed in unself-consciously lyrical prose—result in a radiant meditation on
identity, memory, and familial love and loss.” —Publishers Weekly
“Like Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Schroder is
charming and deceptive, likable and flawed, a conman who has a clever way with
words. Schroder’s tale is deeply engaging, and Gaige’s writing is surprising
and original, but the real pull of this magnetic novel is the moral ambiguity
the reader feels.” —People
“Gaige creates a fascinating and complex
character in Erik, as he moves from the eccentric and slightly irresponsible
father to a desperate man at the end of his rope…[An] expert exploration of the
immigrant experience, alienation, and the unbreakable bond between parent and
child.” —Booklist
“The storytelling is remarkably poised. Smart,
comic, unsettling, yet strangely of a piece—not unlike its disarming lead
character.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Will Collyer’s expressive performance portrays
the spectrum of human emotion from youthful enthusiasm to hurt and baffled
despair. His engaging portrayal carries the listener through the story of a
young father’s compelling love for his 6-year-old child, who is the focus of a sharply
divided custody battle…As a team, Gaige and Collyer draw a heartbreaking
portrait of devoted fatherhood and impending loss.” —AudioFile
“A lyrical and poetic novel about the adverse
ramifications of a little white lie that follows its teller throughout his
life.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“On occasion…a novel will provoke a host of
tangled and disconcertingly conflicted reactions—revulsion and affection; blame
and understanding; a connection that goes beyond surface sympathy to a deeper,
and possibly unwanted, emotional recognition. These were among the things I
experienced while reading Amity Gaige’s astoundingly good novel Schroder.” —Wall Street Journal
“With Schroder, Gaige has achieved a remarkable
feat. How impressive to have created a protagonist who’s brilliant,
narcissistic, creepy, and unhinged, yet somehow sympathetic…Gaige is such a
masterful writer that she makes Schroder seem more pitiful than hateful…As
unlikely as it sounds, you’ll be half-rooting for this lost soul to prevail.” —USA Today
“Eric is the unlikeliest of characters to charm
a reader. His life is a tabloid drama: man abducts daughter, gets arrested and
confesses in a letter to his estranged wife. It is to the credit of Amity
Gaige, an American writer, that her third novel, Schroder, transforms this thriller plot into a deeply moving tale…What
distinguishes Schroder is its insight
and language…Ms. Gaige excels at landscapes; her writing has the still, clear
beauty of a mountain lake.” —Economist
“The essence of the ersatz Rockefeller/Kennedy
character is of course an epic, pathological narcissism, and this Gaige gets
impressively right…Gaige writes beautifully…The novel’s climactic chapter is
also its best conceived: the item that brings about Schroder’s downfall is
perfect, both dramatic and mundane. The reader will realize that he or she has
been given every detail necessary to see what was coming, yet didn’t, which is
plot-making of the highest order.” —New York Times Book Review
“Equal parts plea, apology, and defense, this
enthralling letter rises up from a fog of narcissism that will cloud your
vision and put you under his spell…Gaige displays an unnerving insight into the
grandiosity and fragility of the middle-aged male ego…With its psychological
acuity, emotional complexity, and topical subject matter, [Schroder] deserves all the success it can find.” —Washington Post
“Utterly devourable…Gently and beautifully
unfolds, like a gauzy curtain in an open window.” —Los Angeles Times
Author
Author Bio: Amity Gaige
Amity Gaige’s essays, articles, and stories have appeared in various publications, including the Yale Review, Los Angeles Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Literary Review, and in a 2009 collection of essays called Feed Me. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a McDowell Colony Fellowship, and a Baltic Writing Residency Fellowship, and is currently the visiting writer at Amherst College. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her family.
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Details
Details
| Available Formats : | Library CD, Playaway |
| Category: | Fiction/Literary |
| Runtime: | 7.15 |
| Audience: | Adult |
| Language: | English |
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