Michelle Huneven – författare

*One of 50 books TODAY can't wait to read in 2025* “Deeply satisfying…Feels like watching a master painter at work.” —Ann Napolitano, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hello BeautifulA decades-spanning family saga featuring the messy but loving Samuelson clan trying to make sense of the world after the loss of their son EllisWhen Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother Ellis went missing the summer he graduated high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture in the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but died in a freak accident weeks later.From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep. Each Samuelson has sought their own solace: Sybil Samuelson pours herself into teaching and numbing her pain after the loss of her beloved son; her husband, Phil, had found respite in a love that developed while he was working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia; Katie, the high achieving middle Samuelson, comes home to try and make peace with her mother after a cancer diagnosis. And Sally has become the de facto caretaker to Eva, the child Ellis never knew.Michelle Huneven is “known for five enthralling novels, which chronicle the lives of middle-class Americans in her lushly conjured native California, as her characters struggle with addiction, excruciating romances, and resounding losses as they continue to seek meaning and a way to be good” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). She captures the Samuelson clan with glorious precision and the deepest empathy as they fracture and rebuild again and again.

Jamesland, the buoyant second novel by Michelle Huneven, critically acclaimed author of Round Rock, is a witty, sophisticated, and deeply humane comedy of unlikely redemption.When thirty-three-year-old Alice Black discovers a deer in her dining room after fighting with her boyfriend, she wonders if she’s going crazy. Pete Ross, forty-six, knows he’s crazy. He’s wrecked his marriage, slashed his wrists, and done time in a psychiatric institution, and now he''s being cared for by his mother, who’s a nun. Forty-five-year-old Helen Harland, a spirited Unitarian Universalist minister, is being driven crazy by her hostile church administration. Living in Los Feliz, California, the three meet at Helen’s Wednesday midweek services. Though initially incompatible, the sheer force of Helen’s idiosyncratic ministering (her “variety show of religious experience”)–paired with Alice’s illustrious ancestor William James–proves to be a catalyst for friendship and a kind of transcendence. Generous and compassionate, Michelle Huneven delivers a joyful new novel about love, faith, and a few wayward souls waiting for life to begin. From the Trade Paperback edition.

In a small town among the citrus groves in the Santa Bernita Valley, so the locals claim, nothing ever goes according to plan. "It''s a great place to live, they say, if you like surprises: it''s just like life, only different." Certainly a number of Rito''s inhabitants--fewer than a hundred in all--are surprised to be living here. Red Ray, for instance, a wildly alcoholic lawyer who bought a dilapidated Victorian mansion in an attempt to rehabilitate his marriage and regain the affections of his wife and young son. After destroying those hopes with a spectacular final binge, Red established a drunk farm, Round Rock, on the ruins. There, one day at a time, he follows his new, unexpected calling.Many months after her husband decamped (almost immediately) for Los Angeles, Libby Daw still lives alone in their trailer, and finds herself even more rooted to the valley she dreams of escaping.And there''s Lewis Fletcher, a sometime graduate student whose keen intelligence is sorely tested by his erratic behavior and current predicament. Without exactly knowing why, and entirely against his wishes--or by default and sheer good luck--he finds himself placed in Ray''s care at Round Rock.As these people seek out or maintain their various niches in the valley, the peculiar history of the place asserts itself. An heiress descended from the original settlers, Billie Fitzgerald still acts as though she owns it all; devoted to her father and son, she obscures her mercurial emotions from even her closest friends. The past also returns with David Ibañez, whose family had harvested the groves for generations--and whose talents and secrets (and thus, he discovers, his future) are inextricably bound to the complex, close-knit town he thought he had left behind.With insight matched with artistry, Michelle Huneven traces the emerging destinies of these characters as each of them struggles for peace and equilibrium, even happiness and love, against hapless, all-too-human frailty and circumstance. A vivid evocation of landscape and community, Round Rock derives great power from psychological subtlety, and from affection for and profound understanding of lives strained or broken but on the mend. Fresh, remarkably mature, and constantly surprising, this astonishing debut wins both your trust and your heart.From the Hardcover edition.

'Feels like watching a master painter at work' Ann Napolitano'Wonderful. A moving portrait of an imperfect family' Jennie Godfrey'I adored it' Claire Lombardo'A gorgeous, sprawling family saga' Literary HubSummer, California, 1970s. Sally Samuelson is eight years old, and the course of her family's life is about to change. When Ellis, her older brother, tragically fails to return from a week up the coast, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis again. Especially when Julia, Ellis's girlfriend, shows up pregnant on their doorstep.And over the next four decades, the family fractures and rebuilds again and again - in a story that takes in grief, love affairs, illnesses, late-in-life marriages and long-hidden secrets, to show one complicated but loving family trying to make sense of the world.'Crackles with compassion . . . I inhaled this book in a weekend, regretting only that it would ever end' Leslie Jamison'Like a narrative love child of Alice Munro's stories and Elizabeth Strout's novels' New York Times Book Review'Huneven is a literary sister to Ann Patchett, Anne Tyler and Tessa Hadley' Raffaella Barker'I couldn't stop reading this story of a beautiful, broken and quirky family who feel utterly real' Ericka WallerReaders love Bug Hollow . . . ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This book broke my heart and put it back together'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A beautiful portrait of a complicated, ordinary, and extraordinary family'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'May be one of my favourite books of all time'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'The perfect nostalgic summer book'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So real and heartwarming. I loved every character, flaws and all'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Best book I read this year!'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This novel just wedged its way into my heart and soul'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'If you're a fan of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout, you will love this'

'Feels like watching a master painter at work' Ann Napolitano'Wonderful. A moving portrait of an imperfect family' Jennie Godfrey'I adored it' Claire Lombardo'A gorgeous, sprawling family saga' Literary HubSummer, California, 1970s. Sally Samuelson is eight years old, and the course of her family's life is about to change. When Ellis, her older brother, tragically fails to return from a week up the coast, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis again. Especially when Julia, Ellis's girlfriend, shows up pregnant on their doorstep.And over the next four decades, the family fractures and rebuilds again and again - in a story that takes in grief, love affairs, illnesses, late-in-life marriages and long-hidden secrets, to show one complicated but loving family trying to make sense of the world.'Crackles with compassion . . . I inhaled this book in a weekend, regretting only that it would ever end' Leslie Jamison'Like a narrative love child of Alice Munro's stories and Elizabeth Strout's novels' New York Times Book Review'Huneven is a literary sister to Ann Patchett, Anne Tyler and Tessa Hadley' Raffaella Barker'I couldn't stop reading this story of a beautiful, broken and quirky family who feel utterly real' Ericka WallerReaders love Bug Hollow . . . ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This book broke my heart and put it back together' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A beautiful portrait of a complicated, ordinary, and extraordinary family' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'May be one of my favourite books of all time' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'The perfect nostalgic summer book'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So real and heartwarming. I loved every character, flaws and all' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Best book I read this year!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This novel just wedged its way into my heart and soul' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'If you're a fan of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout, you will love this'