The Why of Things by Elizabeth H. Winthrop - ISBN: 9781444755480
Hardcover
Grief, suspicion, and a drowned man shatter a family’s fragile peace.

The Why of Things

  • Hardcover

    256 pages

  • Release Date

    8 July 2013

Summary

As the summer begins, the Jacobs family arrive at their holiday home in Massachusetts, only to find that a truck has been driven into their water-filled quarry and a young man has drowned. It is a dreadful echo of another recent death: the suicide of Joan and Anders’ eldest daughter.

When details emerge of the man’s identity, fifteen-year-old Eve becomes obsessed with proving that his death wasn’t an accident, while her little sister unwittingly adopts his orphaned dog. Joan is more i…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781444755480
ISBN-10:144475548X
Author:Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Publisher:Hodder & Stoughton
Imprint:Sceptre
Format:Hardcover
Number of Pages:256
Release Date:8 July 2013
Weight:457g
Dimensions:223mm x 143mm x 29mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

With insight, respect and luminous clarity…This haunting, shimmering novel reminds us how all of us know our families: with unimaginable intimacy, and hardly at all. - Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winner of Far From the Tree

Often, after a tragedy, we wonder how people find the will to put one foot ahead of the other, to somehow move forward. In many ways, Winthrop has written a novel about continuance… her message, as complex as it is simple, is that the unendurable can and will be endured only if one chooses to go on. - New York Times Book Review - Helen Schulman

Once again, Elizabeth Winthrop conjures light from a dark place in her beautifully constructed, touching novel. - Christine Schutt, bestselling author of Prosperous Friends

PRAISE FOR DECEMBER:

‘Winthrop is brilliant at depicting the bewildering world and its assault on the senses of a struggling adolescent … This extraordinary novel seduces as it also challenges: curiously provoking and offering small flashes of illumination, like matches struck in that dim and meaningful space on the far side of language.’ - Natalie Sandison, The Times

Like budding artist Isabelle, Winthrop is a master of observation, and her ability to crystallize themes in particular vignettes (fixing a broken phonograph, buying Christmas presents) brings this affecting family drama vividly to life. - Publisher’s Weekly

Compelling…Grief is a hard subject to portray, yet Winthrop reflects the emotions of each character perfectly. She captures the heartache and unravels the small personal triumph of each life to create the bigger picture. - Western Mail

With insight, respect and luminous clarity … This haunting, shimmering novel reminds us how all of us know our families: with unimaginable intimacy, and hardly at all. - Andrew Solomon

Often, after a tragedy, we wonder how people find the will to put one foot ahead of the other, to somehow move forward. In many ways, Winthrop has written a novel about continuance … her message, as complex as it is simple, is that the unendurable can and will be endured only if one chooses to go on. - New York Times Book Review

About The Author

Elizabeth H. Winthrop

Elizabeth H. Winthrop was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Harvard University in 2001 with a BA in English and American Literature and Language, and in 2004 she received her Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of California at Irvine. Her stories have appeared in a variety of publications including the Missouri Review and the Indiana Review. FIREWORKS, her first novel, was published by Sceptre in 2006, and her second, DECEMBER, came out in 2008. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter and St. Bernard.

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