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A Novel
by Janet Peery
Janet Peery's first novel, The River Beyond the World, was a National Book Award finalist in 1996. Acclaimed for her gorgeous writing and clear-eyed gaze into the hearts of people, Peery now returns with her second novel, The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs.
On a summer evening in the blue-collar town of Amicus, Kansas, the Campbell family gathers for a birthday dinner for their ailing patriarch, retired judge Abel Campbell, prepared and hosted by their still-hale mother Hattie. But when Billy, the youngest sibling--with a history of addiction, grand ideas, and misdemeanors--passes out in his devil's food cake, the family takes up the unfinished business of Billy's sobriety.
Billy's wayward adventures have too long consumed their lives, in particular Hattie's, who has enabled his transgressions while trying to save him from Abel's disappointment. As the older children--Doro, Jesse, ClairBell, and Gideon---contend with their own troubles, they compete for the approval of the elderly parents they adore, but can't quite forgive.
With knowing humor and sure-handed storytelling, Janet Peery reveals a family at its best and worst, with old wounds and new, its fractures and feuds, and yet its unbreakable bonds.
"The story itself isn't plot-heavy; rather, it moves forward in the nudges Peery gives her characters to reveal themselves, to interact and illuminate the dysfunction of their aging, dying family. This is a potent and memorable novel." - Publishers Weekly
"Peery's insightful writing turns a happily-ever-after conclusion into appreciation for the serenity of acceptance and steadfastness." - Booklist
"A tender - if not altogether surprising - family portrait with generous heart. Ultimately satisfying, a quiet novel with lingering warmth." - Kirkus Reviews
"It's rare to find a book that so mercilessly, and beautifully, and honestly concerns itself with middle-aged life....Janet Peery is a magnificent sentence-maker and a faithful reporter of the human condition as it regards this large and flawed and recognizable -- so recognizable -- midwestern family. I will gift everyone I know with a copy of The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs, just because it has such important confirmation to bestow upon us." - Antonya Nelson, author of Talking in Bed and Funny Once
"Never have the highs and lows of love and sacrifice--of addiction and enabling--and the inevitable passage of time, been so eloquently rendered in the moments and memories of everyday life...a brilliantly moving and unforgettable novel." - Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life
"Piercingly observant of the minutia that make life meaningful, Janet Peery paints a portrait in The Exact Nature of our Wrongs of a family both unmistakably familiar and unforgettably unique, one that will stay with you for a while. This is a richly accomplished, novel by a writer as wryly funny as she is wise." - Josh Weil, author of The Great Glass Sea and The New Valley
This information about The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Janer Peery's books include Alligator Dance (stories), What the Thunder Said (a novella and stories), and her first novel The River Beyond the World, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has received numerous honors for her fiction including the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Whiting Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. She lives in Cape Charles, Virginia.
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