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A Field Guide to the North American Family

A Field Guide to the North American Family

Summary

From the author of the New York Times bestseller City on Fire
A Granta Best of Young American Novelist 2017
‘A young author of boundless and unflagging talents’ New York Times


We can all agree on this much, Marnie thought: nobody saw the Hungate divorce coming. In the privacy of her own mind, she saw them as the last of a dying breed, the Great American Family.

Two families – the Hungates and the Harrisons – live side by side in Long Island, New York. They lead charmed lives: good jobs in the city, weekends by the pool, cheerleading practice after school and backyard barbecues in the summer. But within these lives lie hundreds of little deceptions.

Told through a mix of photographs and words, this is a dazzlingly inventive depiction of two families falling apart and coming together and the thousand different truths of the American Dream.

Reviews

  • This is a bit of a hidden gem, which reminded me of Leanne Shapton’s.
    Sarra Manning, Red Online

About the author

Garth Risk Hallberg

Garth Risk Hallberg’s first novel, City on Fire, was an international bestseller and was named one of the best books of the year by the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Independent, and Vogue, among others. His illustrated novella, A Field Guide to the North American Family was nominated for a Believer Book Award and his short fiction and essays have been published in the Guardian, and the New York Times Book Review. He is a Granta Best Young American Novelist. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and children and is at work on a new novel.
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