After walking away from her PhD with a broken heart and fragile
nerves, Langston Braverman returns to the supposedly sleepy
existence of her home town in Indiana and immerses herself in her
parents' attic, at a loss for what to do with her life. Although
intelligent and astonishingly well-read, Langston has a childish
and self-absorbed nature that leaves her ill-equipped to deal with
the violent death of her childhood best friend Alice and the legacy
she leaves behind - two small children, whom Langston finds herself
virtually forced to care for. Enter Amos Townsend, the local
preacher who is suffering from a crushing crisis of faith, and a
weighty sense of responsibility towards Alice's children. Thrown
together in part by Langston's long-suffering mother AnnaLee, the
two troubled adults don't get along too well at first, but a shared
love of literature and philosophy soon bring them onto the same
wavelength under the most unlikely of circumstances. This is an
exquisitely crafted novel, both beautiful and intelligent in its
execution. Kimmel has skilfully woven her well-rounded characters
into a narrative that is slightly disturbing yet utterly absorbing.
Her creation of a seemingly bland small town that is in reality
multi-layered with secrets bubbling under its surface is
beautifully and convincingly done, and the background history she
provides for each character adds to the depth of the story. This is
a book that resonates in the mind long after the reader has turned
the last page. (Kirkus UK)
Langston Braverman has just walked out on her PhD oral exams and returned home to Haddington, Indiana in a fragile emotional state. She retreats to her parents' attic, unsure what to do with the summer or the rest of her life, but with vague plans to write the great American novel. But it's hot, and she is distracted beyond capacity to think by the banality of this small-town home she has returned to, and plunged deep in the trauma of a self-imposed existential dilemma from which not even news of the death of her childhood best friend, Alice, can rouse her.
A few houses down Plum Street, Amos Townsend, the local preacher, is suffering from a crippling crisis of faith, wondering how he can continue in the role of spiritual leader of this community. Traumatised by Alice's violent death, guilt-ridden over his inability to prevent it, he feels a responsibility for the welfare of Alice's two suddenly orphaned young girls, altered beyond recognition from the shock of having witnessed the bloody end to their parents? marriage. Langston's mother, meanwhile, has forced her into the role of carer, and the developing relationship between the damaged children, and these two slightly hopeless adults helps all four embark on a process of recovery and redemption that is heartbreakingly poignant and utterly convincing.
The Solace of Leaving Early is a remarkable novel - generous, warm-hearted, smart and ambitious. It is a novel of people and ideas, of family ties, and of how those ties endure for better or worse, of grief and love, of leaving home and returning, of the overwhelming secrets that rest quietly within us. It is so sweet and smart, it?s a present.
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