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What Luck, This Life
- Author
- Kathryn Schwille
- Narrator
- various
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 18 September 2018
- Run Time
- 5 hours 29 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
The Columbia space shuttle and its contents rain down on the people of Kiser, Texas, in Kathryn Schwille’s imaginative debut novel set six weeks before the invasion of Iraq.
What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle’s break-up, as the people of Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. A shop owner defends herself against a sexual predator who is pushed to new boldness after he is disinvited to his family reunion. A closeted father facing a divorce that will leave his gifted boy adrift retrieves an astronaut’s remains. An engineer who dreams of orbiting earth joins a search for debris and instead uncovers an old neighbor’s buried longing.
In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster’s surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the novel’s unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality’s grip and a luminous book emerges—filled with heartache, beauty, and warmth.
Critics Review
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“Fans of Thomas Pierce and Amy Hill Hearth will appreciate Schwille’s spare, poetic prose and her willingness to examine both the picturesque and the unsavory sides of small-town life. A deeply thought-provoking novel.”
Booklist
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“Quietly contemplative and affecting…[A] modern-day Winesburg, Ohio.”
Kirkus Reviews
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“What Luck, This Life is an astonishing work of literary talent, surprising at every turn. The characters are wild and desperate, but they are also us. For we are all cast out, looking for a return. From the tattered remains of disaster, Schwille creates a glimmering constellation of humanity, a flash of heavenly light. Just thinking about this book makes me feel more alive.”
Elaine Neil Orr, author of Swimming Between Worlds
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“Unexpectedly moving…[Schwille’s] characters speak from the heart; their troubles and small triumphs speak to all of us.”
Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever
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“This is a book full of heart and wisdom.”
Thomas Pierce, author of The Afterlives
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Kathryn Schwille
- Narrator
- various
- Duration
- 5 hours 29 minutes
- Release Date
- 18 September 2018
- ISBN
- 9781538452769
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Narrative theme: Sense of place, Fiction: general and literary, Family life fiction, Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
The Columbia space shuttle and its contents rain down on the people of Kiser, Texas, in Kathryn Schwille’s imaginative debut novel set six weeks before the invasion of Iraq.What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle’s break-up, as the people of Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. A shop owner defends herself against a sexual predator who is pushed to new boldness after he is disinvited to his family reunion. A closeted father facing a divorce that will leave his gifted boy adrift retrieves an astronaut’s remains. An engineer who dreams of orbiting earth joins a search for debris and instead uncovers an old neighbor’s buried longing.In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster’s surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the novel’s unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality’s grip and a luminous book emerges—filled with heartache, beauty, and warmth.
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