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ACCELERATED

Bronwen Hruska

The story of a single father who, through the ups and downs of his son, learns to be a father and a man.
Accelerated reveals what lies beneath the gilded façade of a tony Upper East Side private school, the sort of place routinely glamorized in film and television, hiding real issues beneath the surface that speak to the wider issues facing America’s educational system. Every afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School, where everything is accelerated—3rd graders read the 6th grade level and their facilities rival most universities. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who lunch. But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy… When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn’t the caviar that was served at last week’s PTA meeting. To Sean, Toby’s “issues” in school seem to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy. But maybe Sean just isn’t seeing things clearly—hard to do since Toby’s new teacher, Jess, started teaching at Bradley. And the school should have Toby’s best interests at heart. But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold? When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined.
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Book

Published by Pegasus

Book

Published by Pegasus

Comments

"This week I finally cracked the galley for Bronwen Hruska’s Accelerated a novel about a Huxleyean plot within one of Manhattan’s most expensive and exclusive private schools, a book which also just got a starred review in Library journal. As I expected, it’s an engaging and compelling read." Read more...

In Hruska’s witty, piercingly relevant debut novel, she pulls back the curtain on the lengths to which people will go to produce successful children…[and] perfectly captures the prep school milieu that crackles with rumors, money, and the hunger for success, while creating a wholly sympathetic father-son relationship that ranks love over Ivy League potential.

This compelling story of high-pressure early academics in Manhattan will appeal to readers of Tom Perrotta, Jennifer Haigh, and other authors whose novels about families in a particular segment of society illuminate the larger human condition.

Interview with the author. Read more...

“A fast-paced, crystal-clear, and funny exploration of a subject that, thanks to Hruska, can finally be openly talked about. A kind of Kramer v. Kramer meets Erin Brokovich in a dark dystopia with baby pharmaceuticals packed in lunch boxes set in the most treacherous world there is: New York City private schools.”

"Wild!"

“Bronwen Hruska's Accelerated is a smart, sexy thriller balanced on top of a real-life horror story: the irresponsible over-medication of our children by our schools.”

Bronwen Hruska catches the sweet spot of fiction with Accelerated: page turning, socially compelling, and ringing with truth. Layered between the stories of a private school overmedicating their students, celebrity journalism, and a crumbling marriage, lays the tender love of a father for his son

Q & A with the author. Read more...

Bronwen Hruska’s first novel, ‘Accelerated’ invites readers into a story that is relatable and makes them aware of what could happen, what does happen, and what will continue to happen every day until more stories like hers are written and read. Well done. Read more...

Browen Hruska’s Accelerated (“First Author, First Book”) focuses on a suddenly single father alarmed by pressure from his son’s fancy Manhattan school to put his son medication. It stems from Hruska’s own experience, but her cautionary tale is universal: “It’s not just this school, not just Manhattan, and not just New York, but all over the country.” My prediction: lots of controversy when the book publishes. Read more...

In her riveting new novel, Bronwen Hruska skewers the parenting habits of affluent Manhattanites…As knowing as it is entertaining, this novel portrays a segment of New York as ‘a trap, an amped-up bubble where everything had to be better, faster, more impressive.’

The Daily Beast made ACCELERATED one of their “hot picks” for the week of December 24th: There are wonderful elements of comedy and satire here, but the book also feels like an important “New York novel” in the way that it reports on two spheres of the city under-represented in fiction: the children who are buffeted through the halls of these expensive institutions, and the parents who wield them like well-groomed status symbols. Read more...

Interview with the author. Read more...