Soon to be a major film starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman 'Funny, smart, ingenious, moving, altogether great' Nick Hornby World famous Caleb and Camille Fang have dedicated their lives to great performance art. But for their children, Annie and Buster, their 'art' is an embarrassment. As soon as the children grow up they flee home, desperate to escape the chaos of their parents' world. But when the lives they've built come crashing down, brother and sister have no choice but to go back. And whether the kids agree to participate or not, Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance that will finally determine what's more important: their family or their art.
Wilson’s ambition alone is exciting. . . . [His] writing has a Houdini-like perfection, wherein no matter how grim the variables, each lovely sentence manages to escape with all its parts intact.” —Boston Globe The eagerly-anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Family Fang—a warm-hearted and moving story about a young woman making a family on her own terms. When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching. Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world”—to study what would happen when ten children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project and he wants Izzy and her son to join. This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates: unspoken resentments between the couples begin to fester; the project's funding becomes tenuous; and Izzy’s growing feelings for Dr. Grind make her question her participation in this strange experiment in the first place. Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves.
A New York Times Bestseller • A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, TIME, The A.V. Club, Buzzfeed, and PopSugar “I can’t believe how good this book is.... It’s wholly original. It’s also perfect.... Wilson writes with such a light touch.... The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming. You’re laughing so hard you don’t even realize that you’ve suddenly caught fire.” —Taffy Brodesser-Akner, author of Fleishman is in Trouble, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of The Family Fang, a moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability. Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help. Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth. Thinking of her dead-end life at home, the life that has consistently disappointed her, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose. Over the course of one humid, demanding summer, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—while also staying out of the way of Madison’s buttoned-up politician husband. Surprised by her own ingenuity yet unused to the intense feelings of protectiveness she feels for them, Lillian ultimately begins to accept that she needs these strange children as much as they need her—urgently and fiercely. Couldn’t this be the start of the amazing life she’d always hoped for? With white-hot wit and a big, tender heart, Kevin Wilson has written his best book yet—a most unusual story of parental love.
This book might not be for you.It would be irresponsible to write a synopsis without saying that first. That's not a marketing ploy. It's not a gimmick to catch your intrigue. There's no convoluted political reasoning for the trigger warning other than genuine empathy for you as a human being. I'm saying it like a doctor trying to write a prescription for what ails you. This book will probably be like medicine for some people. It will open up new ways of thinking, help you empathize with more people, and give you better insight into your own personal demons. For others, this book will be like poison.I don't pull punches and I wrote this book to tear the scars off your heart. Start to finish, this book is meant to knock the wind out of you. So if your heart is already bleeding, and you're trying to catch your breath, please leave it be and come back another time.That being said...Thirteen demons of the Family have come to destroy the World. From a dimension beyond comprehension, the Family seeks to complete the Rituals of Breaking and erode the barriers between Worlds. By turning human vice into the power for their dark magics, the Family has but to set the stage and let our frailties play out for humanity to condemn itself. Hope comes only by Breaking the Names of the Family, for they are made vulnerable when they choose a Monument for their Rituals. If a human should choose virtue over vice and overcome their darkest desires, only then can the Family die. It will fall to Seth, Monument of the Full Knowing Choice of Evil, to decide the ultimate Fate of the World. Seth has to answer a single question to save the world. But will he be able to find the answer in time?
“Hands down my favorite book of the year.” -- Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth From the New York Times bestselling author of The Family Fang comes his first short story collection in nearly a decade, combining his signature quirkiness with his keen eye for emotional complexity to explore the fraught relationship between parents and children. “Wildfire Johnny” is the story of a man who discovers a magic razor that allows him to travel back in time. “Scroll Through the Weapons” is about a couple taking care of their underfed and almost feral nieces and nephews. “Signal to the Faithful” follows a boy as he takes a tense road trip with his priest. And “Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine,” the title story, is about a narcissistic rock star who moves back home during a rough patch. These stories all build on each other in strange and remarkable ways, showcasing Wilson’s crackling wit and big heart. Filled with imagination and humor, Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine is an exuberant collection of captivating and charmingly bizarre stories that promise to burrow their way into your heart and soul. "Wildfire Johnny" will be the first project in development with “The Great” actor Nicholas Hoult and MRC Television.
People Magazine Book of the Week A Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, The Chicago Review of Books, Minnesota Public Radio, and more An Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick Fans of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go Bernadette and and Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang will delight in Annie Hartnett's debut, a darkly comic novel about a young girl named Elvis trying to figure out her place in a world without her mother. Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn’t yet know—like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.
Sink your teeth into this irresistible forbidden romance from USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy about the vampire Warden of Charleston and the new-in-town witch who’s causing him all kinds of trouble… Willa Farrington’s magic is broken. Shunned by her coven for failing to pass the Summer Solstice Rite, Willa escapes to the one place no witch belongs – Charleston, a city that belongs to vampires. Determined to embrace her new life, Willa opens Cauldron Boil Books, and unexpectedly finds some friends among the vampires… Until one terrible night Willa ends up on the wrong side of a pair of fangs. Thankfully, her captor’s plan is ruined when Killian Constantine, the drop-dead gorgeous Warden of Charleston, shows up to save her. But just when Willa thinks she’s safe, Killian, rumored to be the most feared vampire in the city, furiously demands to know why she – a witch – telepathically called him for help. Intent on finding answers, the two embark on a journey to unravel the mystery behind Willa’s attack and their unusual connection. As they get closer to the truth, the fiery passion between them ignites. But their forbidden romance isn’t making them many friends, and just as Willa starts to think that her entire existence is a lie, deadlier forces come out of the shadows. She will need to believe in her malfunctioning magic, trust bloodthirsty vampires, and cross her fingers that she and Killian make it out together… and that neither end up dead.
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with a new book of stories. An aspiring actress goes to an audition with a mysterious director. An editor receives the last manuscript of his murdered friend. A young lawyer learns the terrible connection between her grandfather and an ancient race of creatures. A bodyguard drives her employer across a frozen road toward an immense hole in the earth. In these stories and others, John Langan maps the branches of his literary family tree, tracing his connections to the writers whose dark fictions have inspired his own. Introduction by Stephen Graham Jones.
