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Published Jul 2019
416 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The adult debut from bestselling, award-winning young adult author Jaclyn Moriarty - a frequently hilarious, brilliantly observed novel - that follows a single mother's heartfelt search for greater truths about the universe, her family and herself.
Twenty years ago, Abigail Sorenson's brother Robert went missing one day before her sixteenth birthday, never to be seen again. That same year, she began receiving scattered chapters in the mail of a self-help manual, the Guidebook, whose anonymous author promised to make her life soar to heights beyond her wildest dreams.
The Guidebook's missives have remained a constant in Abi's life—a befuddling yet oddly comforting voice through her family's grief over her brother's disappearance, a move across continents, the devastating dissolution of her marriage, and the new beginning as a single mother and café owner in Sydney.
Now, two decades after receiving those first pages, Abi is invited to an all-expenses paid weekend retreat to learn "the truth" about the Guidebook. It's an opportunity too intriguing to refuse. If Everything is Connected, then surely the twin mysteries of the Guidebook and a missing brother must be linked?
What follows is completely the opposite of what Abi expected––but it will lead her on a journey of discovery that will change her life––and enchant readers. Gravity Is the Thing is a smart, unusual, wickedly funny novel about the search for happiness that will break your heart into a million pieces and put it back together, bigger and better than before.
"A complex dissection of the self-help industry, as well as a complete and moving portrait of a difficult, delightful woman, Moriarty proves her adult novels can live up to her YA work's reputation." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Quirky and beguiling, this witty quest for the truth will delight anyone mending their own broken life." - Kirkus Reviews
"A thoughtful, beautifully written, truly original, and often hilarious meditation on loss, hope, the self-help industry, and the difficulties of navigating life on earth." - Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
"Gravity is the Thing is one of the most magical, different, interesting, likable, lovable, beautiful, sad, lovely, immensely uplifting books I have ever read. I read it in an agony of loving it but also being so humbled by the fact that if I lived to be 7,022 years old I would never be able to write a book as good as this. You will adore it—it's an instant classic." - Marian Keyes
"Jaclyn Moriarty has given readers a tender and exhilarating tale of what becomes possible when you dare to believe in the impossible. Gravity is the Thing brims with mystery and enchantment on every page. This book will leave readers breathless and aching for more." - Meghan MacLean Weir, author of The Book of Essie
This information about Gravity Is the Thing 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.
Photo credit: Michael McCabe
Jaclyn Moriarty is the bestselling author of novels for young adults including Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Year of Secret Assignments, and the Colours of Madeleine trilogy. She published her first novel for adults in 2019: Gravity is the Thing.
She has been the recipient of the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the Queensland Literary Award, and the Aurealis Award for Fantasy. Jaclyn grew up in Sydney, lived in England, the United States, and Canada, and now lives in Sydney again. She is very fond of chocolate, blueberries, ice-skating and sleep.
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