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Material Type | Library | Call Number | Suggested Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Putnam Main Public Library | HAF | Adult | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Hafner's taut and utterly delightful debut is a novel of multitudes. . . . What a wonder of storytelling."--Weike Wang, New York Times
New York Times Editor's Choice * Good Morning America Reading Pick * LitHub Most Anticipated Book * Christian Science Monitor Summer Reading Pick
A delicious summer read filled with humor and surprise for readers of Anne Tyler and Kevin Wilson.
When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries fun-loving Barb, so comfortable in the world, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. She fills his world with a sense of adventure, expanding his horizons beyond his comfortable routine. To ease Ethan's fears of becoming a father, Barb suggests they foster two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, and Ethan immediately falls in love with the boys.
When the pandemic hits, he becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for them. But instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his boys are.
Author Notes
Katie Hafner has been writing about technology since 1983. She was the news editor of Data Communications Magazine, a reporter for the San Diego Union, a technology correspondent for Business Week and a contributing editor at Newsweek, covering technology and computers. In addition, she has contributed articles to journals such as Wired, The New Republic, Esquire and Working Woman.
Hafner is co-author of Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (1991, with John Markoff), and Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet (1996, with husband Matthew Lyon). In 1995, she wrote The House at the Bridge: A Story of Modern Germany, which grew out of an interest she developed in college while studying with novelist and playwright Rheinhard Lettau.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Hafner's marvelous fiction debut centers on a socially awkward man's neuroses about fatherhood. While working as the chief technology officer at a startup in Philadelphia, Ethan meets Barb, a University of Pennsylvania grad student, and the two start dating. They soon marry, though Ethan suspects he's scored out of his league. Having lost his parents at an early age, he also fears becoming a father, but Barb changes his mind, only for them to discover after a year of trying to conceive that Ethan is sterile. They decide to foster two young boys, but when the Covid-19 pandemic hits and Ethan develops an overbearing attachment to them, his relationship with Barb disintegrates. She leaves him and he takes the boys on a bike trip to Italy, where a jaw-dropping twist ensues. Starting out as a lighthearted romance before taking an unsettling turn, this upsets expectations in the best way. The heartbreaking late reveal will take a second reading to fully sink in and pushes the troubled marriage genre to dizzying extremes. It's a remarkable outing, and readers will look forward to seeing what Hafner does next. Agent: James Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (July)
Kirkus Review
A quirky couple's decision to foster 8-year-old twins ends up driving them apart. With his extreme introversion and severe anxiety issues, Ethan Fawcett is mostly relieved when lockdown hits. After all, he's "wired for quarantine." "If Barb hadn't come along," he muses, "...I'd have shuffled my way straight into a solitary middle age." But she did, and she thinks he's adorable--so by the time Covid shows up, they've been happily married for years. Ethan is a genius engineering geek; Barb is a research psychologist who studies loneliness among the elderly. Once lockdown hits and social isolation becomes a problem affecting millions, this expertise rockets her to media stardom. Ethan, at that point, is fully booked taking care of Tommy and Sam, a pair of Russian orphans Barb brought home on a whim in 2019. The boys were supposed to give the couple a chance to practice parenthood before they launched into what they had just learned was not going to be the old-fashioned, easy way of making babies. Ethan falls head over heels for the boys, which unlocks a level of manic anxiety and vigilance in him that makes Barb's life unbearable. Even as she is repelled, she thinks she understands. Ethan's parents died in an accident on vacation when they were 38. That birthday is coming for him "like a heat-seeking missile." There's a lot to love in this book--every corner of it is filled with clever invention and loopy charm of the Kevin Wilson variety, and suspense is created by a growing pile of unanswered questions that will keep you flying through it to the end. What the heck did those boys do in Italy that caused the tour operator to disinvite the family from all future expeditions? Why does Barb go completely sour on the boys, to the point that Ethan must choose between her and them? It turns out everything revolves around a huge, nearly unforeseeable (though in retrospect, carefully seeded) plot twist. Like a soup that is either wrecked or nailed by one crazy ingredient--and you don't know what it is till your bowl is empty. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Journalist and author Hafner's (Mother, Daughter, Me, 2013) fiction debut is a striking entry to relationship fiction that is timely and optimistic. Readers learn that Ethan and Barb are estranged and that something went terribly wrong when Ethan took the titular boys on a trip--so wrong that the travel agency has disinvited him from any future excursions. Ethan narrates the chronicle of his and Barb's romance, hinting about unspoken childhood secrets and fears of parenthood. When Barb first brings home foster children Tommy and Sam all seems well, until the pandemic changes everything and Ethan becomes obsessive in caring for the boys, driving Barb away. Midway through the story, narration duties transfer to tour guide Izzy, who's tasked with catering to Ethan's unusual requests during the disastrous bike vacation in Italy. The journey reveals an unexpected plot twist and leaves an opening for Ethan to repair his marriage, if he will take the risk. With beautifully rendered characters and rich language, this is a treat, especially for fans of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Berg.
