Brewster: A Novel - Softcover

Slouka, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393348830 ISBN 13: 9780393348835

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

Synopsis

"Intense and elegiac...devastatingly agile." ―New York Times Book Review

The year is 1968. The world is changing, and sixteen-year-old Jon Mosher is determined to change with it. Racked by guilt over his older brother’s childhood death and stuck in the dead-end town of Brewster, New York, he turns his rage into victories running track. Meanwhile, Ray Cappicciano, a rebel as gifted with his fists as Jon is with his feet, is trying to take care of his baby brother while staying out of the way of his abusive, ex-cop father. When Jon and Ray form a tight friendship, they find in each other everything they lack at home, but it’s not until Ray falls in love with beautiful, headstrong Karen Dorsey that the three friends begin to dream of breaking away from Brewster for good. Freedom, however, has its price. As forces beyond their control begin to bear down on them, Jon sets off on the race of his life―a race to redeem his past and save them all.

Mark Slouka's work has been called "relentlessly observant, miraculously expressive" (New York Times Book Review). Reverberating with compassion, heartache, and grace, Brewster is an unforgettable coming-of-age story from one of our most compelling novelists.

A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
A Washington Post Notable Book of 2013
A Barron’s Favorite Book of the Year, selected by Daniel Woodrell
A Booklist Best Adult Books for Young Adults Editor’s Choice 2013

About this title

About the Author

Mark Slouka’s most recent books are the story collection All That Is Left Is All That Matters, the memoir Nobody’s Son, and the award-winning novel Brewster. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, and the PEN / O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Prague.

Review

“[I]ntense and elegiac novel... Slouka’s storytelling is sure and patient, deceptively steady and devastatingly agile.”
- New York Times Book Review

“A masterpiece of winter sorrow...Slouka’s real triumph here is capturing the amber of grief, the way love and time have crystallized these memories into something just as gorgeous as it is devastating.”
- Ron Charles, Washington Post

“Gorgeously written...[A novel about] human frailty, friendship, yearning, heart and love.”
- John Barron, Chicago Tribune

“Readers familiar with Richard Russo’s Mohawk, N.Y., might find some similarities in Mark Slouka’s Brewster, N.Y....Gorgeous and touching.”
- Peter Geye, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Reading Brewster is like entering the very heart of a Bruce Springsteen song―all grace, all depth, all sinew. Slouka―one of the great unsung writers of our time―has written a magnificent novel that woke my tired heart.”
- Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin

“Terrific.... [W]here Slouka distinguishes himself as an author of particular sensitivity and significance is in how accurately and memorably he is able to conjure up a particular mood that has no doubt been felt in every era, not just the late '60s and early '70s. There is a timeless sense of yearning here.”
- Adam Langer, Boston Globe

“Slouka’s laconic dialogue resonates with regional authenticity, his late-1960’s pop culture references ring true, and the stripped down prose style in his masterful coming-of-age novel recalls the likes of Tobias Wolff and Raymond Carver.”
- Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Brewster is subtly wrought and wholly moving, capturing with beautiful desperation the sense of personal insecurity overshadowed by an era of unwieldy international concerns.”
- The Rumpus

“What Slouka also draws, with unerring accuracy, is the primacy of friendship and loyalty among teens who feel they are powerless. Slouka gives them a voice here, one filled with equal parts humor and pain.”
- Booklist, starred review

“Despite delving bravely into despairingly dark subject matter, [Brewster] is still somehow infused with hope and light, achieving a sort of literary chiaroscuro.... Brewster could become the latest addition to the American canon of coming-of-age stories, enchanting readers with its soulful story of love, loss and the vagaries of the teenage heart.”
- Karen Ann Cullotta, BookPage

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0393348830
• ISBN 13: 9780393348835
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288