Heather, The Totality - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1786890631 ISBN 13: 9781786890634

Publisher: Canongate Books

Synopsis

A LibraryReads' November Selection
Named a must-read book for fall by Huffington Post, USA Today, Oprah.com, and the NY Post, and a "Favorite Book So Far" by Popsugar.
The explosive debut novel - about family, power and privilege - from the creator of the award-winning Mad Men.

Mark and Karen Breakstone have constructed the idyllic life of wealth and status they always wanted, made complete by their beautiful and extraordinary daughter Heather. But they are still not quite at the top. When the new owners of the penthouse above them begin construction, an unstable stranger penetrates the security of their comfortable lives and threatens to destroy everything they've created.

About this title

About the Author

Acclaimed storyteller Matthew Weiner has been entertaining audiences for two decades, most recently as writer, creator, executive producer, and director of Mad Men, one of television's most honored series. He also worked as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos, along with several comedy series, and made his feature film debut in 2014. Weiner studied at Wesleyan University and earned his MFA from the University of Southern California.

Review

"Weiner's award-winning writing and producing of such renowned television shows as The Sopranos and Mad Men is neatly evident in his quietly thrilling debut novel. Written in descriptive and illuminating scene-like snippets-though nearly free of dialogue-this one-sitting read concerns the eerily shared delusions of a privileged Manhattan family and a man who stalks the periphery of their lives...The sense of doom is sharply rendered, characters are well developed, and their motivations are finely wrought. Readers will hope for more book-form fiction from Weiner."―Booklist

"Weiner has created a very contemporary and creepy little novel about a teenaged girl and a fervent admirer. Rife with observations about Manhattan's elite, Heather is both unsettling and satisfying."―Literary Hub

"A page-turning thriller...we highly recommend reading it in one sitting so you can soak it all in."―Popsugar

"Fans of Mad Men will find familiar themes lurking in the show creator's debut novel."―Harper's Bazaar

"Heather, The Totality is a tour de force of control, tone and razor-slash insight. In its clear-eyed anatomist's gaze and its remarkable combination of empathy and pitilessness I hear echoes of Flaubert and Richard Yates, with a deeply twisted twist of Muriel Spark at her darkest. I could not put it down."
―Michael Chabon, author of Moonglow

"Short and rapier-sharp, Matthew Weiner's HEATHER, THE TOTALITY compels and unnerves in equal measure. Like the great Patricia Highsmith, Weiner renders the disturbing not just plausible but exquisitely, agonizingly inevitable. A tour de force."―Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl

"This short novel of upper-crust anomie and class-divide obsession is a scorcher! It's the classic noir construction: the short walk off the long ledge and the plummet to an indifferent Hell. Matthew Weiner demonically delivers the goods! Read this book in one gasping breath."―James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential and Perfidia

"Heather, The Totality gripped me at once and had me spellbound. It was partly the absolute certainty of the world he was describing, the sense that beyond these brilliantly chosen details there was a wealth of similarly truthful social and psychological perception unstated. And partly the slightly fastidious form, the sound of a voice a hair's breadth away from affectation, but so firmly where it was that there was no question of turning away and not hearing what was going to come next. Then there was the ice-cold mercilessness, of a kind that reminded me (oddly, I suppose, but there it was) of Evelyn Waugh."―Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

"An exciting debut novel with a fast-paced plot and plenty of suspense"―Vogue

"A lacerating novella."―O, The Oprah Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• ISBN 10: 1786890631
• ISBN 13: 9781786890634
• Binding: Hardcover