Accelerated

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What to expect

Every afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School. Everything at Bradley is accelerated—third graders read at the sixth grade level, they have labs and facilities to rival most universities, and the chess champions are the bullies. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who-lunch that congregate on the steps every afternoon. But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy. Or is he?

When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn't the caviar that was served at last week's PTA meeting. Toby's "issues" in school seem, to Sean, to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy. But maybe Sean just isn't seeing things clearly, which has been harder and harder to do since Toby's new teacher, Jess, started at Bradley. And the school has Toby's best interests at heart, right? But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold?

When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined.

Critics Review

  • “Riveting…Bronwen Hruska skewers the parenting habits of affluent Manhattanites…As knowing as it is entertaining.” 

    O, The Oprah Magazine

  • “[Hruska] has woven an engagingly believable narrative with just the right amount of snark. This compelling story of high-pressure early academics in Manhattan will appeal to readers of Tom Perrotta, Jennifer Haigh, and other authors whose novels about families in a particular segment of society illuminate the larger human condition.”

    Library Journal (starred review)

  • “In Hruska’s witty, piercingly relevant debut novel, she pulls back the curtain on the lengths to which people will go to produce successful children…Hruska perfectly captures the prep school milieu that crackles with rumors, money, and the hunger for success, while creating a wholly sympathetic father-son relationship that ranks love over Ivy League potential.”

    Publishers Weekly

  • “Hruska…knows her territory. She paints a convincing portrait of a regular guy trying to make it in competitive Manhattan, and the scenes between Sean and his love interest are sexy and fun to read.”

    Booklist

  • “What starts off as an entertaining romp through the world of privileged parents and private schools spins itself into a harrowing tale. A deftly, unexpectedly terrifying first novel.”

    A. M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven

  • “A fast-paced, crystal-clear, and funny exploration of a subject that, thanks to Hruska, can finally be openly talked about. A kind of Kramer v. Kramer meets Erin Brokovich in a dark dystopia with baby pharmaceuticals packed in lunch boxes set in the most treacherous world there is: New York City private schools.”

    Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance and The Seven Year Bitch

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