Taffy Brodesser-Akner – författare

Finally free from his nightmare marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of online dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future that is wildly different from the one he imagined, his life turns upside-down as his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears. While Toby tries to find out what happened - juggling work, kids and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity - his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if he ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER! An exhilarating novel about one American family and the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, from the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice! New York Magazine's Beach Read Book Club Pick!

Belletrist Book Club Pick A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Vogue, Town & Country, New York Post, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Parade, Kirkus Reviews

"Joins the pantheon of great American novels."-Los Angeles Times "Exuberant and absorbing . . . a big old-fashioned social novel."-The Atlantic

"Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?"

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety.

But now, nearly forty years later, it's clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband's emotional health. Their three grown children aren't doing much better: Nathan's chronic fear won't allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything-substance, foodstuff, women-in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she's not a product of her family's pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives' successes and failures.

Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family's history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives' tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety. But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures. Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.

''Sharp and wicked, insightful and funny, and then suddenly so touching'' DAVID NICHOLLS

''It is a Great Novel . . . It has depth, wit, nuance and life. Heartbreaking and funny'' NIGELLA LAWSON

''This is the novel of the summer . . . There is no one that this book isn''t for. I can''t believe it''s a first novel. Pure brilliance'' INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES

''Could be one of the books of my entire lifetime. I''ve never felt so seen'' GRACE DENT, GUARDIAN''This book is a work of utter perfection'' ELIZABETH GILBERT

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, JUNE 2019

Finally free from his nightmare marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of online dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future that is wildly different from the one he imagined, his life turns upside-down as his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears.

While Toby tries to find out what happened - juggling work, kids and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity - his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if he ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place . . .

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE:

''So sharp'' GUARDIAN

''The most astonishingly brilliant Trojan horse of a novel'' DOLLY ALDERTON

''Wonderful. Utterly blistering . . . A wildly entertaining, moving story'' MARIAN KEYES

''Brimming with wisdom and utterly of this moment . . . Taffy Brodesser-Akner''s debut is that rare and delicious treat: a page turner with heft'' MARIA SEMPLE

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDLONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDALSHORTLISTED FOR THE FICTION: DÉBUT BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDSRUNNER-UP FOR THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE 2020FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE/JOHN LEONARD AWARD FOR BEST FIRST BOOK

''Is this book as good [as Fleishman]? It''s better'' THE NEW YORK TIMES''The best book I''ve read this year'' HARLAN COBEN''Very, very good'' ELIZABETH DAY''The book of the summer, nay, the year'' DAVID SEDARIS''This book is DYNAMITE. Inhaled it in two sittings'' CAITLIN MORAN''Shocking, tender, profound and delicious'' EMILY MAITLIS''Lavishly comic'' THE TIMES''A lip-smacking tale'' GUARDIAN''Elegant and devastating'' FINANCIAL TIMESFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble comes a darkly exhilarating novel about an American family and its inheritance - the safety and wealth that they fought for, and the precarity of their survival that is their legacy. In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalised, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Miraculously, Carl, his wife and his three kids are left to move on with their lives, and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream. But nearly forty years later, when Carl''s mother dies, the trauma that has been bubbling beneath the Fletchers'' lives all this time surfaces at last. It becomes apparent that Carl has been quietly pursuing closure to the kidnapping for all these years, and his wife and children must face that the money that they believed bought them safety was actually never capable of doing any such thing. Long Island Compromise spans generations, winding through decades of history all the way through to the wild present, dealing along the way with all the mainstays of American Jewish life and the timeless questions about wealth, trauma, and the American soul.MORE PRAISE FOR LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE:''The status book you''ll want to be seen with'' STYLIST''[A] scabrous satire'' THE NEW YORKER''This author''s talents are boundless'' LA TIMES''Substantive and profound'' CATHY RENTZENBRINK''Greatness so often comes at the expense of what is enjoyable. Long Island Compromise is both, and then some'' IPAPER''Exuberant and absorbing'' ATLANTICPRAISE FOR FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE:''There is no one that this book isn''t for . . . Pure brilliance'' INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES''Could be one of the books of my entire lifetime. I''ve never felt so seen'' GRACE DENT, GUARDIAN''Sharp and wicked, insightful and funny, and then suddenly so touching'' DAVID NICHOLLS''A work of utter perfection'' ELIZABETH GILBERT[FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE was a Sunday Times bestseller (UK) in August 2019 and a New York Times bestseller (USA) in June 2019]

Toby Fleishman azt hitte, tisztában van vele, mire számíthat a válás után: hétvégéken és az ünnepek felében nála lesznek a gyerekek, az ex-szel pedig olykor hajba kapnak majd a praktikus dolgok egyeztetésekor. Arra viszont nem számított, hogy egy szép napon Rachel áthozza a két gyereket, aztán lelép és soha nem tér vissza. Pedig Fleishman mennyi munkát fektetett abba, hogy egyensúlyt teremtsen a szingli élet és a család között!

Toby próbálja megtalálni Rachelt, igyekszik ellátni a kórházi pácienseit, megfelelni a végeérhetetlen szülői teendőknek és örül a mobiltelefonos appok segítségével felvirágoztatott szexuális életének. A visszautasított férj szerepében tetszeleg, aki a felesége túlméretezett ambícióinak esett áldozatául. De ha igazán szembe szeretne nézni a kapcsolatukkal, be kell vallania magának, hogy a kezdetektől fogva szőnyeg alá söpörte a problémákat.

Sziporkázó első kötet, tele nyugtalanító kérdésekkel és tanulságokkal.

„Philip Roth vagy John Updike pontosan így írtak a legjobb korszakukban - leszámítva, hogy ez a szerző tisztában van vele, mi játszódik le a nőkben.” - Elizabeth Gilbert

„Figyelemreméltó első könyv. Az egyik legerősebb debütálás.” - Tom Perrotta

„A Fleishman bajban van az első oldaltól az utolsóig bölcs, kíméletlen és abszolút naprakész. Az, hogy mennyire csalafinta és éleslátó, csak az utolsó fejezetben válik egyértelművé.” - Maria Semple

Egy friss remekmű – Fleishman bajban van

A Fleishman bajban van ez egyik legjobb regény, amit az elmúlt években olvastam, nincs kétségem efelől. Taffy Brodesser-Akner írta, aki ismert, sokszorosan díjazott fiatal újságírónő az Egyesült Államokban, viszont ez az első regénye, úgyhogy ne keresgélj az emlékezetedben – mi nem ismerhettük.

Nem ismerhettük – eddig. A Fleishman berobbant az irodalmi életbe – és itt a kifejezés nem csak  ócska közhely, úgy igaz, ahogy van. Díjeső hullott rá egyfelől, elaléltan fogadta a finnyás angolszászi művészvilág másfelől, ugyanakkor komoly bestseller lett, hónapokig fent volt a New York Times listáján és minden fontos listán.

Szóval Brodesser-Akner hetek alatt híres lett és gazdag és népszerű és körülrajongott.

A Guardian – pedig nem kenyerük a hízelgés, és akkor finom voltam még – az új Philip Rothnak nevezte, és az összehasonlítás megállja a helyét. Ahogy Brodesser-Akner is – az összehasonlításban.

Elképesztő lendület a szövegben, sodor, mint a zúgó folyó, azon kapod magad, hogy hajnali három óra van, pedig most kezdted csak az olvasást. Napi húsz oldalt engedélyeztem magamnak, hogy tovább tartson, de nagyjából a harmadánál elengedtem a gyeplőt, és faltam.

Egy fiatal New York-i orvost elhagy a felesége, de hogyan hagyja el! A válás után, szó nélkül, odahagyva mindent, a gyerekeket is. Miféle ember tesz ilyet?

Na, csak várj, mielőtt megképződne előtted a világirodalom néhány gonosztevője – Jago az Othelóból, John Silver A kincses szigetből vagy a Cápából a cápa – és azt gondolnád, Rachel, a feleség mindet lepipálja –, várj egy kicsit.

Javaslom, olvasd végig a könyvet. Vár a végén egy-két meglepi, nemcsak a történetben, de a regény felépítésében is. Úgy olvadnak össze a szálak, úgy jutunk el a nem várt (vagy várt? döntsd el) csúcspontig, mint A salemi boszorkányokban vagy a Sehonnaiban, Tommy Orange regényében, szóval meghökkentő, megdöbbentő az egész, és főleg az, hogy ennyire fiatalon hogy lehet ilyen jól írni.

Elizabeth Gilbert szerint „Philip Roth vagy John Updike pontosan így írtak a legjobb korszakukban – leszámítva, hogy Brodesser-Akner tisztában van azzal, hogy mi játszódik le egy nőben.”

És egy férfiban, teszem én hozzá.

Bárdos András