Dennis Mcfarland Knihy

On the way home from dinner, Malcolm Vaughn is shot and killed in front of his family - the victim of a random act of violence. Undone by shock and grief, his wife Sarah retreats from the world, postponing her return to work and their son Harry's return to school. Harry appears to have come through the loss unscathed, until a troubling incident reveals his profound pain and confusion. It will take time—and the support of Malcolm's best friend, Deckard, a Vietnam vet with troubles of his own—to help them understand the intracies of their sorrow.

Dennis McFarland's acclaimed debut novel, hailed by the "New York Times Book Review "as "a rare pleasure . . . Remarkable from its beginning to its surprising, satisfying end" Musician Marty Lambert's life is already falling apart when he receives the phone call that changes everything. His brother, Perry, has killed himself in New York, and Marty--with his marriage on the rocks and his record company sliding into insolvency--decides to leave San Francisco to investigate exactly what went wrong. His trip sends him headlong into the life his only brother left behind--his pleasures and disappointments, his friends, his lovely girlfriend, Jane--and finally, to the home they shared growing up in Virginia. Along the way, through memories and dreams, Marty relives their complicated upbringing as the children of talented, volatile musicians and alcoholics. Through the tragedy, Marty finally faces the demons of his past, ones he pretended he had buried long ago, to emerge on the other side of grief, toward solace and a more hopeful future.

In der Vergangenheit wurde die Existenz der Lamberts auf ihrem Besitz in Norfolk, Virginia, von Musik, Geld und Sauferei bestimmt. Großvater Lambert verunglückte mit seiner Frau tödlich, als er im Suff sein Flugzeug gegen die Berge steuerte. Die Musikkarriere seines Sohnes Rudi endete jäh; doch als der die Hoffnung auf ein Comeback nicht aufgeben wollte, drohte seine Frau Helen (ein früheres Callgirl aus Las Vegas), ihn mit ihren zwei Söhnen zu verlassen. Inzwischen ist viel Zeit vergangen. Rudi hat sich totgetrunken, und Helen, von Rückfällen gestraft, ist Mitglied bei den AA. Wir schreiben das Jahr 1976, Rudi und Helens Sohn Martin, der 29 Jahre alte Besitzer einer Schallplattenfirma in San Francisco und gerade von seiner Frau getrennt, ist nach New York geflogen, um herauszufinden, warum sein vier Jahre jüngerer Bruder Perry aus dem 23. Stock eines Hotels gesprungen ist. Die dramatische Reise in die Vergangenheit nimmt ihren Anfang.