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SUCH KINDNESS

André Dubus III

To one man's painful moral journey, Dubus brings compassion with an edge of dark absurdity, forging a novel as absorbing as it is profound.

A working-class white man takes a terrible fall. Tom Lowe's identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family's dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls. In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the cost of his relationships with his wife and son, Tom slowly comes to realize that he can never work again. If he is not a working man, who is he? He is not, he believes, the kind of person who lives in subsidized housing, though that is where he has ended up. He is not the kind of person who hatches a scheme to commit convenience-check fraud, together with neighbors he considers lowlifes, until he finds himself stealing his banker's trash. Who is Tom Lowe, and who will he become? Can he find a way to reunite hands and heart, mind and spirit, to be once again a giver and not just a taker, to forge a self-acceptance deeper than pride? Andre Dubus III's soulful cast includes Trina, the struggling mom next door who sells her own plasma to get by; Dawn, the tough-talking owner of the local hairdressing salon; Jamie, a well-meaning pothead college student ready to stick it to "the man"; and a mix of strangers and neighbors who will never know the role they played in changing a life. To one man's painful moral journey, Dubus brings compassion with an edge of dark absurdity, forging a novel as absorbing as it is profound. Andre Dubus III is the author of Gone So Long, Dirty Love, The Garden of Last Days, House of Sand and Fog (a #1 New York Times bestseller, Oprah's Book Club pick, and finalist for the National Book Award), and Townie, winner of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. He lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

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Book Published 2023-06-06 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

Such Kindness is a deeply spiritual book, almost religious in its focus on forgiveness and connection and a deep belief in the worth of everyone - the broken, the sick, the elderly, and addicted. Andre Dubus III's new novel is a gift to his readers, and a reminder to all of us that we can be better and kinder people.

Best New Books feature: "A powerful portrait of recovered dignity"

[A] novel that deserves praise for its nuanced depiction of working-class people. Read more...

Dubus returns with a heartrending account of one man's desperate quest to retain his sense of goodness under the long shadow of the financial crisis... This is a stirring addition to Dubus's formidable oeuvre.

Dubus is at the top of his game here, masterfully carrying the reader from the present action to Tom's memories and dreams without confusion. The writing and the structure are clean and seamless. Read more...

Dubus is a scribe of the blue collar, the downtrodden, and the destitute, with an uncanny ability to capture guilt, shame, and anger while also infusing his characters with resilience, strength, and hope. Few writers paint three-dimensional characters with such verve and humanism. Dubus is the Botticelli of Beantown.

Such Kindness charts a remarkable rebirth, not from poverty to wealth but from bitter helplessness to the knowledge of self-worth. The result is a gripping and transformational journey toward kindness, in a tremendously moving novel.

Such Kindness is magnificent. A profound and compassionate study of how to be human wrapped in a taut survival story. I loved it so much. This is Dubus at his absolute finest.

SUCH KINDNESS is an Amazon Best Book of June 2023 Read more...

Essay by Andre tied to the themes of the novel: The Lows of the High Life I had never had money, and then I did. For three days in New York, I learned how not to use it. Read more...