The Way the Family Got Away

Uncorrected Proof. Slim 8vo. Pp. [xvi], 143. Orange printed wraps. Blurb by Gordon Lish to back cover.

Kimball's first novel. Published simultaneously with the U.S. edition, after being rejected 119 times, according to its author. Detailing the cross-country migration of a nameless blue-collar family after the death of an infant child, Kimball's debut novel alternates narration by two extremely young characters: the family's surviving son and his barely school-aged sister. "[F]ine, precise storytelling... he has taken it [American literature] somewhere very dark and unsettling." –The Times