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Published Oct 2008
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A best seller in France, with over 400,000 copies sold, and currently being translated into eighteen languages, Fault Lines is the new novel from internationally-acclaimed and best-selling author Nancy Huston.
Huston's novel is a profound and poetic story that traces four generations of a single family from present-day California to WW II¨Cera Germany. Fault Lines begins with Sol, a gifted, terrifying child whose mother believes he is destined for greatness partly because he has a birthmark like his dad, his grandmother, and his great-grandmother. When Sol's family makes an unexpected trip to Germany, secrets begin to emerge about their history during World War II. It seems birthmarks are not all that's been passed down through the bloodlines.
Closely observed, lyrically told, and epic in scope, Fault Lines is a touching, fearless, and unusual novel about four generations of children and their parents. The story moves from the West Coast of the United States to the East, from Haifa to Toronto to Munich, as secrets unwind back through time until a devastating truth about the family's origins is reached. Huston tells a riveting, vigorous tale in which love, music, and faith rage against the shape of evil.
"Starred Review. At times the point of view is less than convincing, but in the end the multiple viewpoints are well handled and show how children are so often more aware of the poor behavior of adults than adults themselves." - Library Journal.
"An elegant if overly manipulated structural design parallels the insightful but overly simplified psychological evolution of vulnerable children .. into reactive adults." - Kirkus Reviews.
"Starred Review. Huston masterfully links the 20th century's misery to 21st-century discomfort in razor-sharp portraits of children as they lose their innocence." - Publishers Weekly.
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Winner of France's Prix Femina and shortlisted for the Orange Prize, this is Huston's 12th novel.
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