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TEN THOUSAND SAINTS

Eleanor Henderson

Part coming-of-age, part coming-to-terms, Eleanor Henderson's TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is a virtuosically layered, exuberant and expansive debut.
The movie TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is based on Eleanor Henderson's novel. Directed by Bob Pulcini and Shari Berman (“American Splendor”), it stars Ethan Hawke and Asa Butterfield (“Enders Game”, “Hugo”) and Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”).

Adopted by a pair of diehard hippies, restless, marginal Jude Keffy-Horn spends much of his youth developing innovative methods of getting high with his friend Teddy. But when Teddy dies of an overdose on the last day of 1987 Jude's relationship with drugs and with his parents finds new extremes. Sent to live with his pot-dealing father on St. Mark's Place, he discovers straight edge, the underground youth culture powered by a righteous intolerance for drugs, meat, and sex, and the paradoxical aggression of hardcore punk. Together with Teddy's half-brother Johnny and their new friend Eliza, Jude attempts to honor Teddy's memory through his new, militantly clean lifestyle. But Jude's addiction to straight edge has its own dangerous consequences, and honoring Teddy is more difficult than he'd imagined. Meanwhile, the parents of these teenagers struggle to raise a generation that has a radical reinterpretation of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll and a grown-up awareness of nature and nurture, brotherhood and loss.

Eleanor Henderson started the book at UVA, where she earned her MFA in 2005. Last year her story "The Farms" was selected by Alice Sebold for The Best American Short Stories 2009. Her fiction has also appeared in Agni, North American Review, Ninth Letter, and Columbia, among others. Her nonfiction has appeared in Poets & Writers, where she was a contributing editor, and Virginia Quarterly Review, where she chairs the fiction board. She currently teaches at James Madison University, and will start an assistant professorship at Ithaca College in Fall 2010.
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Book

Published 2011-06-01 by Ecco Press

Comments

“An irresistibly rich and engrossing novel poignant, complex Henderson brilliantly evokes the gritty energy of New York City in the ‘80s, and the violent euphoria of the music scene. The hard-edged settings highlight the touching vulnerability of young characters.” (Best Fiction 2011)

The official movie trailer has been released! Theatrical release is August 14, 2015. Read more...

Portuguese (Brazil): Record; Italian: Bompiani; UK: Quercus; French: Sonatine;

“Rarely has a coming-of-age novel captured a time and place-here the late 1980s on Manhattan's Lower East Side-with such perfect pitch. Grade: A”

“One of the Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2011 [A] raucous first novel” (Paperback Row)

“Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the hell out of every moment, every scene, every perspective, every fleeting impression, every impulse and desire.... She is never ironic or underwhelmed; her preferred mode is fierce, devoted and elegiac.” - Stacy D'Erasmo

“The best and most lyrically written coming-of-age novel of the year.” (Newsweek Writers' Best Books of 2011)

“[A] rare debut that, with a flinty kind of nostalgia, invokes both the gods and demons of a generation.”

Author Eleanor Henderson's meticulous research into the straight edge movement in the late 1980s has opened a door to a piece of history handled with love, care, and incredibly unforgettable characters. - Alexandra Foster