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Published May 2014
304 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.
This is a story of the sides of ourselves that we choose to show and those we try to conceal, of the ways we tear each other down and build each other up again, and the bonds that ultimately hold us together. With wry humor and tremendous heart, Emma Straub delivers a richly satisfying story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole.
"The pacing is quick but satisfying and the characters themselves feel genuinely complex, interesting, and knowledgeable...A pleasant, readable journey." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. A novel that is both a lot of fun to read and has plenty of insight into the marital bond and the human condition." - Kirkus
"I would read anything Emma Straub writes. She's a natural talent and a gorgeous and witty storyteller, who makes each sentence look not only easy, but perfectly real." - Elizabeth Gilbert
"Witty, big-hearted, and packed with wisdom, this novel is a breezy read that sneaks in its emotional wallops and leaves you smiling for days." - Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette
"Charming and absorbing, this is a novel that demands to be read in long, satisfying gulps." - Maggie Shipstead, author of Seating Arrangements
"The Vacationers is a beautifully told story that walks the tightrope of family angst and connection with hilarity and truth...It's Ms. Straub at her dazzling best." - Adriana Trigiani, author of The Shoemaker's Wife
This information about The Vacationers 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: Jennifer Bastian
Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of four novels—All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures—and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in more than 20 languages, and All Adults Here is currently in development as a television series. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.
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