Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2014
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In this warm and winning first novel, a recently divorced woman rises to the challenge and experiences the exhilaration of independence with the unlikely help of her brother with Asperger's, who she takes in to help pay the rent.
Seven months after her husband leaves her, Lana is still reeling. Being single means she is in charge of every part of her life, and for the first time in nineteen years, she can do things the way she always wanted to do them. But that also leaves her with all the responsibility. With two teenage children - Byron and Abby, who are each dealing with their own struggles - in a house she can barely afford on her solo salary, her new life is a balancing act made even more complicated when her brother Matt moves in.
Matt has Asperger's syndrome, which makes social situations difficult for him and flexibility and change nearly impossible. He only eats certain foods in a certain order and fixates on minor details. When Lana took him in, he was self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to numb his active mind enough to sleep at night. Adding Matt's regimented routine to her already disrupted household seems like the last thing Lana needs, but her brother's unique attention to detail makes him an invaluable addition to the family: he sees things differently.
Complex, smart, and genuinely moving, The Art of Adapting is a feel-good story that celebrates the small moments and small changes that make one big life.
"A neatly wrapped, happily-ever-after tale of a broken family that survives and thrives." - Kirkus Reviews
"Cassandra Dunn writes with compassion and grace about characters who are so compelling, you won't want this delightful novel to end." - Ellen Sussman, author of A Wedding in Provence and French Lessons
This information about The Art of Adapting 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.
Cassandra Dunn received her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She was a semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and a finalist in Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. She has two children and lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
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