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Published Jul 2012
272 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Thrown together by circumstance, a group of fathers - a sound engineer, a sculptor, a film producer, a chef, a memoirist, a gangster - meets each morning at a local Tribeca coffee shop after walking their children to their exclusive school.
The sound engineer looks uncomfortably like the guy on the sex offender posters strewn around the neighborhood; the memoirist is on the verge of being outed for fabricating his experiences; and the narcissistic chef puts his quest for the perfect quail-egg frittata before his children's well-being. Over the course of a single school year, we are privy to their secrets, passions, and hopes, and learn of their dreams deferred as they confront harsh realities about ambition, wealth, and sex. And we meet their wives and children, who together with these men are discovering the hard truths and welcome surprises that accompany family, marriage, and real estate at midlife.
Fascinatingly layered and multidimensional, these linked stories, arranged like puzzle pieces, create a powerful portrait of unlikely friends and their neighborhood in transition. Striking chords that range from haunting and heartbreaking to darkly funny and deeply poignant, Triburbia marks the start of a brilliant literary career.
"Starred Review. An absorbing first novel... Greenfeld wields his critiques, humor, and observations to create a compelling little universe." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. As Greenfeld subtly ramps up the intensity of his insights and the caliber of his outrage, his sardonic wit sharpens, and his compassion deepens to create a surprising, involving, and strikingly perceptive tale of social and personal metamorphoses." - Booklist
"Pitch-perfect, dry, and smart, this is a vivid portrait of New York, our lives, our loves, and our hearts." - Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief
"Triburbia is a chorus of voices so sharp, vivid, and finely tuned that New York sounds as if it's speaking directly to us. But more than a portrait of a neighborhood, it's also an absorbing exposé of the extravagant preoccupations and dark desires of the new millennium." - Eleanor Henderson, author of Ten Thousand Saints
This information about Triburbia 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.
Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of five previous books: the much-acclaimed memoir Boy Alone; NowTrends; China Syndrome; Standard Deviations; and Speed Tribes. His writing has appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Playboy, One Story, Bloomberg Businessweek, Time, Sports Illustrated, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Best American Short Stories, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. Born in Kobe, Japan, he has lived in Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He currently lives in Tribeca with his wife, Silka, and their daughters, Esmee and Lola. Visit him online at: www.karltarogreenfeld.com.
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