The Fall of Alice K.: A Novel - Hardcover

Heynen, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1571310894 ISBN 13: 9781571310897

Publisher: Milkweed Editions, 2012

Synopsis

Seventeen-year-old Alice Marie Krayenbraak is beautiful, witty, a star student, and a gifted athlete. On the surface, she has it all. But in Alice’s hometown of Dutch Center, Iowa, nothing is as it seems. Behind the façade of order and tidiness, the family farm is failing. Alice’s mother is behaving strangely amid apocalyptic fears of Y2K. And her parents have announced their plans to send her special-needs sister Aldah away. On top of it all, the uniformly Dutch Calvinist town has been rattled by an influx of foreign farm workers.

It’s the fall of senior year, and Alice now finds herself at odds with both family and cultural norms when she befriends and soon falls in love with Nickson Vang, the son of Hmong immigrants. Caught in a period of personal and community transformation, Alice and Nickson must navigate their way through vastly different traditions while fighting to create new ones of their own. Funny and provocative, amusing and unsettling, The Fall of Alice K. marks a watershed moment in the publishing career of author, Jim Heynen.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Fiction|Literature $24

Alice sensed that the Rev was looking straight at her. He knew she was a big achiever in school, and he knew how hungry she was for success. He knew she was a Seeker! She felt cornered by his admonitions. She was one of the restless and unsatisfied ones who was outside the fold, a wayward sheep. . . .”

Seventeen-year-old Alice Marie Krayenbraak is beautiful and witty, a star student and a gifted athlete. On the surface, she has it all. But in Alice’s hometown of Dutch Center, Iowa, nothing is as it seems. Behind the façade of order and tidiness, the family farm is failing, Alice’s mother awaits the apocalypse, and her parents are planning to send her special-needs sister away. On top of it all, Dutch Center is rattled by an influx of foreign farm workers.

In the fall of her senior year, Alice falls in love with Nickson Vang, the son of Hmong immigrants.
Caught at a moment of personal and community transformation, Alice and Nickson must navigate their way through vastly different traditions while fighting to create new ones of their own.

Funny and provocative, amusing and unsettling, The Fall of Alice K. marks the highly anticipated return of celebrated author Jim Heynen.

Jim Heynen was born on a farm in Northwest Iowa. He currently lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Sarah T. Williams.
|Praise for The Fall of Alice K.

Wise, wryly humorous, and aching with tenderness for his characters, Jim Heynen has here gifted readers with his finest and most poignant book.”
Ron Hansen, author of A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion and She Loves Me Not

How wonderful to meet someone as bright, courageous, complex, and real as Alice. This is a terrific novel, at turns funny, heartbreaking, touching, and poetic a compelling read that just keeps getting better and better. I loved this book.”
Shannon Olson, author of Welcome to My Planet and Children of God Go Bowling

The eponymous heroine of Jim Heynen’s The Fall of Alice K. is a wonderful creation smart, courageous, capable, and determined to go her own way. She’s also a true original and ready to take her place in the pantheon of literary teenagers.”
Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948 and American Boy

If only there were more unruly girls like Alice K., unwilling to submit to dogma or tradition the world would be a better place.”
Julia Scheeres, author of Jesus Land and A Thousand Lives

Heynen captures perfectly that time of life when we struggle to define ourselves against the backdrop of our family, our community, our religion, and above all, the dreams we have for ourselves. Alice is a character I won’t soon forget. Hers is a deeply moving story shaped by an expert and generous hand.”
Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever and Break the Skin

Long a true master of the very short story, Jim Heynen shows himself wonderfully adept in The Fall of Alice K. For those who’ve known the heartland farm country Jim has written from, this new book contains familiar terrain but deepens and varies it movingly. Those who haven’t met his work before are in for a readerly treat and many surprises. He writes of the simplicity of the complex, and the complexity of the simple better than anyone I know.”
Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle

From the Back Cover:

Praise for "The Fall of Alice K."
"Wise, wryly humorous, and aching with tenderness for his characters, Jim Heynen has here gifted readers with his finest and most poignant book."
--Ron Hansen, author of "A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion" and "She Loves Me Not"
"How wonderful to meet someone as bright, courageous, complex, and real as Alice. This is a terrific novel, at turns funny, heartbreaking, touching, and poetic--a compelling read that just keeps getting better and better. I loved this book."
--Shannon Olson, author of "Welcome to My Planet" and "Children of God Go Bowling "
"The eponymous heroine of Jim Heynen's "The Fall of Alice K." is a wonderful creation--smart, courageous, capable, and determined to go her own way. She's also a true original and ready to take her place in the pantheon of literary teenagers."
--Larry Watson, author of "Montana 1948" and "American Boy "
"If only there were more unruly girls like Alice K., unwilling to submit to dogma or tradition--the world would be a better place."
--Julia Scheeres, author of "Jesus Land" and "A Thousand Lives"
"Heynen captures perfectly that time of life when we struggle to define ourselves against the backdrop of our family, our community, our religion, and above all, the dreams we have for ourselves. Alice is a character I won't soon forget. Hers is a deeply moving story shaped by an expert and generous hand."
--Lee Martin, author of "The Bright Forever" and "Break the Skin "
"Long a true master of the very short story, Jim Heynen shows himself wonderfully adept in "The Fall of Alice K. "For those who've known the heartland farm country Jim has written from, this new book contains familiar terrain but deepens and varies it movingly. Those who haven't met his work before are in for a readerly treat and many surprises. He writes of the simplicity of the complex, and the complexity of the simple better than anyone I know."
--Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle

About this edition

• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1571310894
• ISBN 13: 9781571310897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240