All I Have in This World: A Novel - Softcover

Parker, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616204486 ISBN 13: 9781616204488

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2014

Synopsis

“A very funny, very moving novel about being lost and then found . . . I love this book.” —Antonya Nelson, author of Bound Two strangers meet over the hood of a used car in Texas: Marcus, who is fleeing both his financial and personal failures, and Maria, who after years of dodging her mistakes has returned to her hometown to make amends. One looking forward, the other looking back, they face off over the car they both want. And after knowing each other for less than an hour, they decide to buy it together. All I Have in This World is a different kind of love story about the power of friendship. “A Springsteenian ode to the promise and heartbreak of the highway.” —The New York Times “Parker’s skillfully rendered story rolls like a restless, unpredictable west Texas river—calm depths here, turbulent shallows there—as Marcus and Maria communicate and lurch toward an imperfect union . . . Which feels a lot like real life.” —The Denver Post “Both poetic and starkly real . . . All I Have in This World charts the emotional and geographic journey of two people trying valiantly to move forward.” —The Raleigh News and Observer “A sweet, sinuous, and smart love story.” —Washingtonian magazine

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Michael Parker's best novel yet. In front seats and back seats we conjure love and contemplate ruin, as do the wonderful characters inAll I Have in This World.Parker again extends his geographical and emotional ranges in this layered and nuanced story of heartbroken, debt-ridden, and atonement-seeking creatures much like many of us." -Mark Richard, author ofHouse of Prayer No. 2

"Preliterate children, it's told, favor above all else the following narrative: a person wandering the dark woods alone meets The True Friend and is, whew, rescued. Michael Parker'sAll I Have in This Worldperforms a magical, hard-won, grown-up version of that child's abiding tale. This is a very funny, very moving novel about being lost and then found, about that rarest gift--shared sensibility--and about being saved, and surprised, by the arrival of The True Friend. I love this book." -Antonya Nelson, author ofBound

Praise for Michael Parker:

"What makes Mr. Parker so satisfying a writer: his bone-deep affection for his characters; his love of clear, crisp, pungent language . . . his confidence in the possibility of redemption." -The New York Times Book Review

"Michael Parker knows everything about the human heart. He is an astonishing American writer." -Randall Kenan

"Parker slices open each isolated life with humor and gentleness, and the familiar battles with loss and loneliness he chronicles make even this remotest of locations feel close to home." -People,4-star review

"There's a big-hearted fearlessness in Michael Parker's work that, quite honestly, I envy." -Colum McCann

From the Inside Flap:

“What sort of place was this, anyway? A lithe and lovely woman, blown up from nowhere, had just asked him to test-drive a car for her. It happened to be the car he wanted for himself. Where, in America, could you not walk into a used-car lot and purchase without impediment what looked to Marcus to be at least a twenty-year-old Buick?”

Two strangers meet over the hood of a used car in Texas: Marcus, who is fleeing both his financial and personal failures; and Maria, who after years of dodging her mistakes has returned to her hometown to make amends. One looking forward, the other looking back, they face off over the car they both want and think they need: a low-slung sky-blue 1984 Buick Electra.

The car, too, has seen its share of failures. Each dent and ripped seam represents a pivotal moment in the lives of others: from the boy who assembled it at an Indiana plant to all its ensuing owners—a God-fearing man who sells it when he sees a sexy girl sprawled across its hood, a doctor who can’t dissociate it from his son’s fate, and a rancher’s wife who’d much rather live without it for all the history it carries.

After knowing each other for less than an hour, Marcus and Maria decide to buy the Buick together. As this surprising novel follows the rocky paths of the Electra and its owners—both past and present—these two strangers form an unexpected and ultimately resilient alliance.

All I Have in This World is a different kind of love story about the power of friendship and the ways we must learn to forgive ourselves if we are ever to move on.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1616204486
• ISBN 13: 9781616204488
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336