Kirjahaku

" Paula] Saunders skillfully illuminates how time heals certain wounds while deepening others. . . . A mediation of the violence of American ambition."--The New York Times Book Review NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE "A deeply involving portrait of the American postwar family" (Jennifer Egan) about sibling rivalry, dark secrets, and a young girl's struggle with freedom and artistic desire In the years after World War II, the bleak yet beautiful plains of South Dakota still embody all the contradictions--the ruggedness and the promise--of the old frontier. This is a place where you can eat strawberries from wild vines, where lightning reveals a boundless horizon, where descendants of white settlers and native Indians continue to collide, and where, for most, there are limited options. Ren shares a home, a family, and a passion for dance with her older brother, Leon. Yet for all they have in common, their lives are on remarkably different paths. In contrast to Ren , a born spitfire, Leon is a gentle soul. The only boy in their ballet class, Leon silently endures often brutal teasing. Meanwhile, Ren excels at everything she touches, basking in the delighted gaze of their father, whom Leon seems to disappoint no matter how hard he tries. As the years pass, Ren and Leon's parents fight with increasing frequency--and ferocity. Their father--a cattle broker--spends more time on the road, his sporadic homecomings both yearned for and dreaded by the children. And as Ren and Leon grow up, they grow apart. They grasp whatever they can to stay afloat--a word of praise, a grandmother's outstretched hand, the seductive attention of a stranger--as Ren works to save herself, crossing the border into a larger, more hopeful world, while Leon embarks on a path of despair and self-destruction. Tender, searing, and unforgettable, The Distance Home is a profoundly American story spanning decades--a tale of haves and have-nots, of how our ideas of winning and losing, success and failure, lead us inevitably into various problems with empathy and caring for one another. It's a portrait of beauty and brutality in which the author's compassionate narration allows us to sympathize, in turn, with everyone involved. "A riveting family saga for the ages . . . one of the best books I've read in years."--Mary Karr "Saunders' debut is an exquisite, searing portrait of family and of people coping with whatever life throws at them while trying to keep close to one another."--Booklist (starred review)

A Midwestern girl balances her dreams of becoming a dancer with the complications of growing up on her own, far from her working-class family, in this "stirring, stunning novel about the desire for a certain kind of life and the quest to find it" (Meg Wolitzer). "The sharp physicality of Paula Saunders's writing hooked me; it was utterly engrossing to feel chills, hunger and lust through the body of this young dancer."--Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author of All Fours She could look in the mirror and see it all happening, everything she'd dreamed of, the potential everyone had seen in her blossoming right in front of her eyes, as if her spirit and flesh were merging, being born as one into light. More than anything, Ren wants to be a dancer. Eve, her mother, supports Ren despite the overwhelming financial burden and increasing tension her training places on the family. But one thing is clear: Ren 's dreams are never going to come true in Rapid City, South Dakota, circa 1973. Setting in motion a journey that will transform her from the inside out, Ren is sent to train alongside stick-thin, sculpted girls in Phoenix, then on to Denver and beyond, encountering along the way a dazzling sequence of eccentric and sometimes dangerous characters: creepy dads, mean girls, predatory radio announcers, kindly ex-opera singers, sham teachers, and avaricious cult leaders. Through it all, Ren pushes herself, doing everything she can to excel at her art while at the same time finding her way through the trials of adolescence. But leaving home is not the same as escaping it. And try as she might, Ren can't quite shake the aching she has for someone to love and accept her just the way she is, dancer or not, successful or not, perfect or imperfect. Lyrical and incisive, Starting from Here is a story of facing the many challenges and terrors of girlhood, of reaching for something that exceeds your grasp, of the enduring contradictions of familial love, of right steps and wrong turns, and of somehow finding your way from wherever you are to wherever you need to go.

Must a child's past define their future?'Stark and beautiful . . . I haven’t read anything this good in a long time' – Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold FrySet on the rugged plains of South Dakota, The Distance Home is the story of René and Leon, two children who grow up side by side but end up on very different paths. René is clever, athletic, aggressive, a go-getter, the apple of her father's eye; while Leon is shy, tender-hearted, a stutterer, constantly struggling for acknowledgement. They both possess a talent for dance, but it is a gift their father adores in his daughter and loathes in his son.A heartbreaking saga of familiar turmoil, a child's desire for acceptance, and the ways in which our parents shape the adults we become, Paula Saunders' The Distance Home is a breathtaking new examination of the American dream and the eternal question of how any of us can finally be free.'A heartfelt tale of brutal parental love' The Times