From the author of the bestselling Fleishman Is in Trouble comes a sharp and poignant exploration of legacy, family and wealth, charting four decades’ worth of repercussions that follow the kidnapping of a New York businessman.
From the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble comes Long Island Compromise, 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 1982, wealthy businessman 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. Carl, his wife and his three kids all try 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. Finally, Carl allows himself to acknowledge what happened to him all those years ago, and face the question that's been idling in his mind for a quarter of a century: where did the ransom go? And if he were ever to find the money, would it finally give him and his family the closure they've been yearning for?
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 through it all, it addresses timeless questions about wealth, trauma, and the American soul.
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781472273031
Number of pages: 464
Weight: 690 g
Dimensions: 240 x 160 x 46 mm
Not gonna sugarcoat this: Long Island Compromise is the best book I've read this year. You do not want to miss it - Harlan Coben
I'm no judge -- of anything at all -- but I think Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise might be a masterpiece - Hugh Laurie
Very, very good. Dare I say . . . I liked it even more than Fleishman - Elizabeth Day
An ambitious, funny family drama . . . Lavishly comic - Susie Goldsbrough, The Times
Elegant and devastating . . . A rich, stylish, moving and funny novel . . . Every reader will find something here that they can recognise, that will resonate and endure - Erica Wagner, Financial Times
[A] scabrous satire of the super-rich . . . Brodesser-Akner is a keen observer of class aspiration as a survival method. - Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker
A lip-smacking tale of family, wealth and self-destruction told with relish - John Self, Guardian
Is this book as good [as Fleishman]? It's better. Sprawling yet nimble, this is her Big American Reform Jewish Novel . . . All those well-timed twists, neat callbacks and tidy scenes are a mitzvah for this satisfying, touching novel. The talented Taffy Brodesser-Akner over here - Sloane Crosley, The New York Times
Book of the summer -- nay, the year. So funny and sprawling and beautifully written. The audio version is read by the great Edoardo Ballerini who is sublime - David Sedaris
Brodesser-Akner had me at "hello" with this opening line from her raucous and ravishing Long Island Compromise, an epic family saga that joins the ranks of such great American novels as The Corrections and Middlesex . . . This author's talents are boundless . . . A humane, brazen, gorgeous novel whose words dance exuberantly on the page - Leigh Haber, Los Angeles Times
This novel needs to come with a health warning: don't take it on a crowded train. You will laugh inappropriately and frequently, and start reading whole passages aloud to complete strangers who catch your eye. Long Island Compromise is everything I was dreaming it would be -- shocking, tender, profound and delicious - Emily Maitlis
Completely engrossing and absorbing; both enjoyable and funny while also substantive and profound - Cathy Rentzenbrink
This book is DYNAMITE. Inhaled it in two sittings - Caitlin Moran
[Long Island Compromise] has the same fever-dream fusion of anxiety and humour that made [Brodesser-Akner's] debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble, such a hit - Mark Urban, The Sunday Times
A rollicking family saga written with the same sardonic wit [as Fleishman Is in Trouble] . . . Brodesser-Akner can spin an excellent yarn with intelligence and wit . . . One of my books of the year - Leyla Sanai, Spectator
The pleasure of Brodesser-Akner's writing is her ability to make us consider a weighty subject in a way that feels thrillingly original . . . Greatness comes so often at the expense of what is enjoyable. Long Island Compromise is both, and then some - Marianne Levy, iPaper
Hooked me from the very first line and although the characters are often unlikeable, I was captivated by them. I loved it - Sara Lawrence, Daily Mail
The status book you'll want to be seen with. As ever, Taffy Brodesser-Akner proves she's a master at uncovering the hdiden human emotions that connect us all, regardless of who we are - Otegha Uwagba, Stylist
Long Island Compromise interrogates wealth, status, dysfunctional relationships and inherited trauma, all with Brodesser-Akner's typically incisive brand of wit - Anna Bonet, iPaper
Exuberant and absorbing . . . Long Island Compromise is ingeniously plotted, its various storylines building toward several extremely satisfying plot twists -- by which I mean the best kind of twists, ones that are earned, that make the reader simultaneously gasp in surprise and want to hit oneself because, in retrospect, they make so much sense that there's no excuse for not having seen them coming . . . Like Franzen's, Brodesser-Akner's sympathies are broad and deep, and like him, she is a person on whom nothing is lost . . . She is also, like him, a sly and stylish writer, adept at using comedy and clever comedic framing to plumb the depths of her characters' misery - Adelle Waldman, Atlantic
Not many books make me laugh, gasp, and tear up within the same story, but this one did . . . One final reason to read the book? You won't understand its title until you do! - Zeynep Kazmaz, nb. Magazine
Now one of my favourite Jewish novels . . . It is SO good . . . It is [a book] that will be read for the ages and will provide a lot of joy, comfort and recognition to people now. Because it's not just a great Jewish novel, it's great literature. - Hadley Freeman, Jewish Chronicle
Jarring and often heartbreaking, this novel doesn't shy away from documenting the resulting inherited trauma that unravels each of [Carl Fletcher's] children's lives, or the burden of wealth as they edge ever closer to the cliff edge. This seemingly cursed family are multi-dimensional -- their story offers a dense, enthralling and powerful meditation on the corrupting power of riches - Amanda Willard, The Herald
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