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2008 Longlist

The Lay of the Land

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

Frank Bascombe’s story resumes, in the fall of 2000, with the presidential election still hanging in the balance and Thanksgiving looming before him with all the perils of a post-nuclear family get-together. He’s now plying his trade as a realtor on the Jersey shore and contending with health, marital and familial issues that have his full attention: “all the ways that life seems like life at age fifty-five strewn around me like poppies.”

Richard Ford’s first novel in over a decade: the funniest, most engaging (and explosive) book he’s written, and a major literary event.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Richard
Ford

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944. He has published seven novels and three collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, A Multitude of Sins and, most recently, The Lay of the Land. Independence Day was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first time the same book had won both prizes.

Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944. He has published seven novels and three collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, A Multitude of Sins and, most recently, The Lay of the Land. Independence Day was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first time the same book had won both prizes.

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

The third instalment in the serial epic of Frank Bascombe- flawed husband, confused father, writer turned real estate agent and gifted social observer that has become nothing less than a history of America in the last half of the twentieth century.

An insightful account on the early 21st century America through the eyes of Frank Bascombe which gently guides the reader to discover new perspectives on everyday life, the universe and everything.

A funny and engaging novel, this is a moving account of a man in late middle age looking back on his life. With brilliant dialogue, this is a fitting conclusion to Ford’s “Bascombe” novels “The Sportswriter” and “Independence Day”.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
United States
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf, Bloomsbury Publishing

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