2010, ISBN: 0224084712

Hardcover, [EAN: 9780224084710], Riverhead Books, Riverhead Books, Book, [PU: Riverhead Books], Riverhead Books, Dinaw Mengestu's first novel, "Children of the Revolution", earned him com… Plus…

Hardcover, [EAN: 9780224084710], Riverhead Books, Riverhead Books, Book, [PU: Riverhead Books], Riverhead Books, Dinaw Mengestu's first novel, "Children of the Revolution", earned him comparisons to Bellow, Fitzgerald and Naipaul, garnered ecstatic critical praise and won the "Guardian" First Book Award for its haunting depiction of the immigrant experience in America. Now, he enriches the themes that defined his debut in a story that captures two generations of an immigrant family. One early September afternoon, Yosef and Mariam, young Ethiopians who have spent all but their first year of marriage apart, set off on a road trip from their new home in Peoria, Illinois, to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of an identity as an American couple. Thirty years later, Yosef has died, and the couple's son, Jonas, is desperate to make sense of the volatile generational and cultural ties that have forged him. How can he envision his future without knowing what has come before? Leaving behind his marriage and job in New York, Jonas sets out to retrace his parents' trip and, in a stunning display of imagination, weaves together a family history that takes him from the war-torn Ethiopia of his parents' youth to a brighter vision of his own life in contemporary America, a story - real or invented - that holds the possibility of reconciliation and redemption. A heartbreaking masterwork about love, family and the power of imagination, "How to Read the Air" confirms Dinaw Mengestu's reputation as one of the brightest talents of his generation., Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2010: Early on in How to Read the Air--the second novel from the author of the widely acclaimed debut, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears--Jonas Woldemariam and his soon-to-be wife Angela attend a party, where they tell casual, false stories about Angela's absent father and arrive, all of a sudden, at the fulcrum of this elegant and unusual novel. "To them," Angela notes, "it's all just one story told over and over. Change the dates and the names but it's the same." It's a theme that Dinaw Mengestu revisits as he selects the chapters from many different stories that converge in Jonas. Chief among them is Yosef and Mariam's story: they are Jonas's Ethiopian parents, estranged from each other in a violent, loveless marriage, each striving more for America's security than for its dreams. Mengestu takes common ideals of how we're supposed to live--ranging from the importance of material progress to the popular notion that there's nothing more American than road trips and country music--and investigates them quite beautifully in characters who are genuine and visionary and do, as Jonas notes, "persist, whether we care to or not, with all our flaws and glory." --Anne Bartholomew, 1000, Subjects, 1, Arts & Photography, 2, Biographies & Memoirs, 3, Business & Money, 3248857011, Calendars, 4, Children's Books, 12290, Christian Books & Bibles, 4366, Comics & Graphic Novels, 5, Computers & Technology, 6, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, 48, Crafts, Hobbies & Home, 8975347011, Education & Teaching, 173507, Engineering & Transportation, 301889, Gay & Lesbian, 10, Health, Fitness & Dieting, 9, History, 86, Humor & Entertainment, 10777, Law, 17, Literature & Fiction, 173514, Medical Books, 18, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, 20, Parenting & Relationships, 3377866011, Politics & Social Sciences, 21, Reference, 22, Religion & Spirituality, 23, Romance, 75, Science & Math, 25, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 4736, Self-Help, 26, Sports & Outdoors, 28, Teen & Young Adult, 5267710011, Test Preparation, 27, Travel, 283155, Books<

2010, ISBN: 0224084712

[SR: 1719833], Hardcover, [EAN: 9780224084710], Jonathan Cape, Jonathan Cape, Book, [PU: Jonathan Cape], 2010-12-30, Jonathan Cape, One early September afternoon, Yosef and Mariam, young … Plus…

[SR: 1719833], Hardcover, [EAN: 9780224084710], Jonathan Cape, Jonathan Cape, Book, [PU: Jonathan Cape], 2010-12-30, Jonathan Cape, One early September afternoon, Yosef and Mariam, young Ethiopians set off on a road trip from their new home in Peoria, Illinois, to Nashville, Tennessee. Thirty years later, Yosef has died, and the couple's son, Jonas, is desperate to make sense of the cultural ties. How can he envision his future without knowing what has come before?, 590934, Literary Fiction, 62, Fiction, 1025612, Subjects, 266239, Books<