The Distance Home

Description

In 1960s rural America two siblings grow up in a place of love and turmoil. Rene is the apple of her father's eye: an over-achiever, athletic, clever, the best brain in class, and the best dancer in school. Her older brother Leon, doted on by his mother, is shy, a stutterer, but also a brilliant dancer. Rene and Leon share a talent, but it is a gift their father adores in his daughter, and loathes in his son. These two children may be best friends, but life promises to take them down very different paths... The Distance Home is the story of two children growing up side by side - the one given opportunities the other just misses - and the fall-out in their adult lives. Funny and tragic, both intimate and universal, Paula Saunders' debut is about how our parents shape the adults we become. It is a hugely moving story of devotion and neglect, impossible to put down - these are characters you will forever press to your heart. PRAISE FOR THE DISTANCE HOME "The Distance Home is a deeply involving portrait of the American postwar family: its promises and disruptions-surrounded by a rich, shimmering, sensuous South Dakota landscape." Jennifer Egan "[Paula] Saunders skillfully illuminates how time heals certain wounds while deepening others, and her depiction of aging is viscerally affecting. . . . The Distance Home becomes a mediation of the violence of American ambition-and a powerful call for self-examination." The New York Times Book Review "Saunders' debut is an exquisite, searing portrait of family and of people coping with whatever life throws at them while trying to keep close to one another. . . . The Distance Home will leave readers eager for more from this extraordinarily talented author." Booklist (starred review) "Penetrating and insightful . . . This debut wonderfully depicts the entire lifespan of a singular family." Publishers Weekly

Paula Saunders grew up in South Dakota. She is a graduate of the Syracuse University creative writing program, and was awarded a postgraduate Albert Schweitzer Fellowship in the Humanities at the State University of New York at Albany, under then-Schweitzer Chair, Toni Morrison. She lives in California with her husband. They have two grown daughters.

The Distance Home is a deeply involving portrait of the American postwar family: its promises and disruptions . . . surrounded by a rich, shimmering, sensuous landscape -- Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad Set in a landscape at once stark and beautiful, here is a luminous novel about the intricacies of family life and family love. The pulls, the twists, the demons, the miracles. Heartbreaking, full of compassion, and prose that feels it has always been there, not even forged from nothing, but essentially true. I haven't read anything this good in a long time. -- Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry In Paula Saunders' The Distance Home, a family's story traces the intricate, often subterranean lines that connect damage to redemption, creation to dissolution, and the everyday to the eternal, just to name several of its moving and startling aspects. It's a true, and rare, accomplishment. -- Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours Paula Saunders has given us a riveting family saga for the ages . . . it kept me turning pages in the wee hours. One of the best books I've read in years - destined to become a classic. -- Mary Karr, author The Liars' Club Honest, and true, and more - this soul-searching first novel offers everywhere that most mysterious and essential of artistic achievements: heart. -- Douglas Unger, author of Leaving the Land and Voices from Silence Extraordinary . . . Paula Saunders writes beautiful, evocative prose that engages you in every aspect of this world. The Distance Home is heart-breaking and full of compassion while also managing to be exacting, precise and truthful. It accomplishes what great fiction should: we get a glimpse of our own humanity. -- Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others Paula Saunders' The Distance Home is a bracing and beautiful novel about a fierce struggle for love and understanding in a South Dakota family, and about aspiration (both thwarted and encouraged) in an unforgiving place. Read it -it will break your heart and open it up. -- Maile Meloy, author of Do Not Become Alarmed An exquisite, searing portrait of family . . . this beautifully written novel takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, delivering them to a place where painful memories live alongside hopes and dreams. The Distance Home will leave readers eager for more from this extraordinarily talented writer * Booklist (starred review) * Penetrating and insightful . . . this debut wonderfully depicts the entire lifespan of a single family * Publishers Weekly *