by Brendan Jones
A fresh debut novel about a lost, fierce young woman who moves to Alaska and finds herself through the hard work of fishing, as far as the icy Bering Sea.
Tara Marconi has made her way to "The Rock," a remote island in Alaska governed by the seasons and the demands of the world of commercial fishing. She hasn't felt at home in a long while her mother's death left her unmoored and created a seemingly insurmountable rift between her and her father. But in the majestic, mysterious, and tough boundary-lands of Alaska she begins to work her way up the fishing ladder from hatchery assistant all the way to King crabber. She learned discipline from years as a young boxer in Philly, but here she learns anew what it means to work, to connect, and in buying and fixing up an old tugboat how to make a home she knows is her own.
A beautiful evocation of a place that can't help but change us and a testament to the unshakable lure of home, The Alaskan Laundry also offers an unforgettable story of one woman's journey from isolation back to the possibility of love.
"The compelling tale of a woman's journey from hopeless anger to genuine empowerment, made richer by its immersion in the world of commercial fishing." - Kirkus
"The depictions of the landscape's harsh beauty and the rugged, damaged characters inhabiting it are well realized; Tara's motivations, however, are not nearly as well developed ... A debut that will leave some readers out in the cold." - Publishers Weekly
"This is a truly towering debut novel. Brendan Jones charts new novelistic territory and sends back moving dispatches from the frontiers of the human heart." - Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master's Son
"The Alaskan Laundry plunges the reader into the heart and soul of a unique commercial fishing culture and the story of Tara Marconi, as she struggles for respect, love, inner peace, and a place to call her own. A cinematic tour de force, it offers up an empowering message of hope and resilience." - Nick Jans, author of A Wolf Called Romeo
"A promising debut, true to the core - a novel of grit and redemption." - Deb Vanasse, author of Cold Spell and Out of the Wilderness
"The Alaskan Laundry is a novel of bracing air that gets deep into your lungs." - Will Chancellor, author of A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall
"A fresh voice in contemporary realism arrives on the scene in this coming-of-age novel ... Jones's dynamic love of America's last frontier comes through in spare, gripping prose." - Suzanne Rindell, author of The Other Typist
This information about The Alaskan Laundry was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Brendan Jones lives on a tugboat in Alaska and works in commercial fishing. A Stegner Fellow, he received his B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, where he boxed for the Blues team. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, Popular Woodworking, The Huffington Post, and on NPR.
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