First published 1981
A chance encounter in 1944 brings two people together during wartime, setting in motion a family story that will unfold across four decades of American life. The protagonist navigates the complexities of marriage, parenthood, and personal identity as the country transforms around them. From the aftermath of World War II through the social upheavals of the 1960s and into the 1980s, this family experiences the full sweep of contemporary American experience. Their private struggles mirror the larger tensions of a nation grappling with change. Busch follows his characters through moments of connection and isolation, success and failure, as they try to build something lasting in an unstable world. The story reveals how ordinary people adapt to extraordinary times, and how the choices made in one generation ripple through the next. At its heart, this is a story about what it means to commit to another person and to a life together when everything else keeps shifting.
Genres: family, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, generational-saga
Period: 1940s, 1960s, 1980s
264 pages · Hardcover · Farrar Straus & Giroux