THE RISK OF US

Howard, Rachel

ISBN 10: 1328588823 / ISBN 13: 9781328588821

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, MA, 2019

About this Item

Text/NEW & Bright. Silver embossed blue linen boards/Fine. DJ/Fine. 2019 First Edition, 1st Printing. Author signed gift inscription to title page dated May 18th, 2019. An intimate & heart-moving novel of family-building through adoption of a foster child. Not told their names, but know the adoptive mother, yearning for motherhood, is forty some years old, and, her husband has a weak heart. Both look forward to having a family in the full sense of the word, and eager to take in a foster child even though knowing most such placements fail! Book begins as the childless couple studies photos & profiles of children available for adoption that are currently in foster care. They ultimately choose 7-year old Maresa --- a child with an indomitable spirit, a history of five failed foster care "placements," and, prone to angry, panic attacks fueled by memories of abuse. Maresa's new foster mother, brings good intentions but also her own history of trauma, while her husband's heart condition threatens to explode. Trails & tribulations of three flawed, but deeply human characters, who want more than anything to love each other & be of one family . will they succeed? 200 pgs in 21 chapters followed by Notes & Acknowledgments.

Seller Inventory # 021268

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE RISK OF US
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, MA
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1328588823
• ISBN 13: 9781328588821
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Nearly half a million children are in foster care. Most placements fail. Will seven-year-old Maresa's?

"It starts with a face in a binder. CHILDREN AVAILABLE, reads the cover." So begins Rachel Howard's intimate and heartbreaking novel about a couple hoping to adopt a child from foster care, then struggling to make it as a family. Seven-year-old Maresa arrives with an indomitable spirit, a history of five failed foster care "placements," and a susceptibility to angry panic attacks fueled by memories of abuse. Maresa's new foster mother, whose name the reader never learns, brings good intentions but also her own history of trauma, while her husband's heart condition threatens to explode. These three flawed but deeply human characters want more than anything to love each other--but how does a person get to unconditional love? Over the course of a year, as Maresa approaches the age at which children become nearly impossible to place, all three must discover if they can move from being three separate people to a true family—or whether, almost unthinkably, the adoption will fail.

Written in a spare and thought-provoking style evoking aspects of Jenny Offill and Rachel Cusk, The Risk of Us deftly explores the inevitable tests children bring to a marriage, the uncertainties of family life, and the ways true empathy obliterates our defenses.

About the Author

RACHEL HOWARD earned her MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College and is the author of a memoir, The Lost Night. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and her fiction, essays, and dance criticism have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She lives in Nevada City, California.