The Weight of Him

Description

How do you carry on, when you lose someone you love? Big Billy Brennan has suffered the greatest tragedy a parent can know - he has just lost his eldest son. His family is falling apart with grief, and his marriage is a partnership in name alone. Billy is also obese: at nearly 30 stone, he can barely walk down the street without breaking a sweat. In his small Irish town, he can't escape his notoriety. So Billy decides to take on the two things weighing him down - his grief, and his fat - in the only way he knows how. He's going to get fit, and in doing so he's going to tell the world about the terrible plague of suicide that is haunting the youth of Ireland. The Weight of Him is an unforgettable, big-hearted novel about loss and recovery, and what can be achieved when an everyday hero finds the courage to transform his life.

Ethel Rohan is the author of two story collections, Goodnight Nobody and Cut Through the Bone, the former longlisted for The Edge Hill Prize and the latter named a 2010 Notable Story Collection by The Story Prize. Winner of the 2013 Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award, and shortlisted for the CUIRT, Roberts, and Bristol Short Story Prizes, her work has or will appear in The New York Times, World Literature Today, PEN America, Tin House Online, The Irish Times, BREVITY Magazine, and The Rumpus, among many others. She has reviewed books for New York Journal of Books and elsewhere. Raised in Dublin, Ireland, Ethel lives in San Francisco where she is a member of The Writers' Grotto and PEN America.

Ethel Rohan shows herself to be one of those rare, courageous writers who dare to take on the 'ordinary' and show just how extraordinary it really is. A brave and moving book. -- John Banville The Weight of Him conjures all the grief and regret of a family who has suffered an insurmountable loss. Out of this burning sorrow rises Big Billy Brennan, a father who attempts the seemingly impossible - to change the world. Ethel Rohan captures a blend of comedy and tragedy that is entirely true to family, hometown, and our own private struggles. Poignant and inspiring. -- Eowyn Ivey, international bestselling author of THE SNOW CHILD Ethel Rohan is a writer of great courage and emotional intelligence. She can also tell a damn good story. The Weight of Him is about loss and about life. It is involving, terrifying and ultimately quite beautiful. -- Tom Barbash, author of STAY UP WITH ME How can a story about death be so life affirming? Ethel Rohan's compassionate debut novel is sad, heartbreaking even, but also uplifting, a celebration of the determination to keep on trying. -- Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of MOTHERS, TELL YOUR DAUGHTERS The Weight of Him is an achingly sad, achingly lovely novel that speaks to the essential core of our shared human experience. I will not soon forget it. Ethel Rohan, a prodigiously skilled short story writer, has proved herself, in this debut novel, to be a master of the long form as well. -- Robert Olen Butler, author of PERFUME RIVER Sweet and profound, true and honest, The Weight of Him is a book to make the world a better place. -- Elisabeth Gifford