{ "item_title" : "Moonglow", "item_author" : [" Michael Chabon "], "item_description" : "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWinner of the Sophie Brody Medal - An NBCC Finalist for 2016 Award for Fiction - ALA Carnegie Medal Finalist for Excellence in Fiction - Wall Street Journal's Best Novel of the Year - A New York Times Notable Book of the Year - A Washington Post Best Book of the Year - An NPR Best Book of the Year - A Slate Best Book of the Year - A Christian Science Monitor Top 15 Fiction Book of the Year - A New York Magazine Best Book of the Year - A San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year - A Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year - A New York Post Best Book of the YeariBooks Novel of the Year - An Amazon Editors' Top 20 Book of the Year - #1 Indie Next Pick - #1 Amazon Spotlight Pick - A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - A BookPage Top Fiction Pick of the Month - An Indie Next BestsellerThis book is beautiful. -- A.O. Scott, New York Times Book Review, cover reviewFollowing on the heels of his New York Times bestselling novel Telegraph Avenue, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon delivers another literary masterpiece: a novel of truth and lies, family legends, and existential adventure--and the forces that work to destroy us.In 1989, fresh from the publication of his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon traveled to his mother's home in Oakland, California, to visit his terminally ill grandfather. Tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, Chabon's grandfather shared recollections and told stories the younger man had never heard before, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried and forgotten. That dreamlike week of revelations forms the basis for the novel Moonglow, the latest feat of legerdemain from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon. Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man the narrator refers to only as my grandfather. It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and marriage and desire, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact--and the creative power--of keeping secrets and telling lies. It is a portrait of the difficult but passionate love between the narrator's grandfather and his grandmother, an enigmatic woman broken by her experience growing up in war-torn France. It is also a tour de force of speculative autobiography in which Chabon devises and reveals a secret history of his own imagination. From the Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of New York's Wallkill prison, from the heyday of the space program to the twilight of the American Century, the novel revisits an entire era through a single life and collapses a lifetime into a single week. A lie that tells the truth, a work of fictional nonfiction, an autobiography wrapped in a novel disguised as a memoir, Moonglow is Chabon at his most moving and inventive.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/06/222/556/0062225561_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "16.99", "online_price" : "16.99", "our_price" : "16.99", "club_price" : "16.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "16.99" } }

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Book clubs: Deathbed revelations

A finalist for the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award, Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is another fascinating blend of fact and fiction from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. This masterfully constructed novel takes the form of a memoir narrated by a writer named Mike, who is in many ways similar to Chabon himself. Filled with the stories Mike’s grandfather shared with him before he passed away, the book offers a remarkable portrait of 1950s America. Mike’s grandfather, an engineer who served in World War II, has many adventures as an enlisted man. After the war, he loses his job, and his volatile temper lands him in prison. Mike’s grandmother, a sensitive woman scarred by the Holocaust, suffers bouts of depression and winds up in an institution. The novel draws upon both of their pasts, and the result is an expansive yet intimate chronicle of a bygone era. Based on actual conversations the author had with his dying grandfather, Chabon’s compassionate exploration of his family’s history is a must-read for fans of literary fiction.

SINS OF THE PAST
Madeleine Thien’s skillfully constructed novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing follows a damaged family in the years after Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China. A math instructor living in Vancouver, Marie is trying to find answers about her father, Kai, a talented pianist who committed suicide. During the 1960s, a time of political unrest in China, Kai trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with Sparrow, a gifted composer, and Zhuli, a young violinist. Sparrow is the father of Marie’s old friend, Ai-Ming, who is also trying to untangle her family’s history. Marie gradually teases out the threads of the past through notebooks her father left behind. Across the years, the lives of the three musicians have repercussions for both women. The narrative moves back and forth in time with wonderful fluidity as Thien explores the complexities of family and the far-reaching effects of history. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this provocative novel is a great fit for reading groups.

TOP PICK FOR BOOK CLUBS
Brit Bennett’s acclaimed debut novel, The Mothers, takes place in an African-American enclave in California. Nadia Turner, a headstrong teen, is approaching the end of high school while coping with her mother’s suicide. She finds romance with 21-year-old Luke Sheppard, a once promising athlete who now works at a diner. When Nadia gets pregnant, she does her best to conceal her condition. Not even Aubrey, her closest friend, knows the truth about her pregnancy. Nadia succeeds in keeping her secret, and as she says goodbye to her teenage years, she finds that her choices regarding Luke and the baby have lingering consequences. Writing with luminous clarity, Bennett spins a poignant story of young people in search of themselves. An exciting introduction to an important new novelist, this is a timely book that will resonate with readers of all ages.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.