The Heart Of It All

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

"For anyone who believes, as I do, that the best hope for our fractured country is local, not national, Christian Kiefer's new novel The Heart of it All will provide a welcome balm for the spirit. Here are people worth spending time with, not because they're perfect, but because they're not. What's wrong with them isn't nearly as consequential as how hard they fight for a better life, and not just for themselves. You set the book down and think, 'This is what we're made of.' Or should be."-Richard Russo, author of Somebody's Fool A small, declining town in Ohio. A family bereaved by terrible loss. A searing narrative about how American lives touch each other across divides both real and imagined... Set in failing small town in central Ohio, The Heart of It All asks how one manages, in an America of increasing unsurety, to find a sense of family and community. Focusing on the members of three families- the Baileys, a white family who have put down deep roots in the community; the Marwats, an immigrant family that owns the town's largest employer; and the Shaws, especially young Anthony, an outsider whose very presence gently shakes the town's understanding of itself. A gorgeous, stirring novel in the classic vein of Richard Ford, Marilynne Robinson, Richard Russo, and Kent Haruf, The Heart of It All asks the reader to consider an America both divided and bound by its differences.

Reviews

"Set in a crumbling small town in the Ohio Rust Belt, The Heart of It All, should be required reading not only for anyone wanting to understand our country as it exists today, with all its hatred, divisiveness, and economic disparity, but also for those who wish to know how to be a decent human being even as the American Dream recedes further and further into the past. It is a truly beautiful achievement."Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time & The Heavenly Table
"If you want to find out the kind of novel that an offspring of Richard Russo and Alice Munro would write, look no further. Christian is a great writer." Rabih Alameddine, author of The Wrong End of the Telescope

"This beautifully structured ensemble novel is Altmanesque in its complex, subtle intertwining of the lives of small-town Ohio factoryworkers and their families. Bringing together a diverse variety of voices,Kiefer weaves together a haunting, heartbreaking and empathetic portrait of contemporary America."Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk

"Kiefer deftly lulls you into his characters lives, afloat in their isolation, before they swell into a cresting, spangled wave powered by pain and angst, that sweeps you ashore waiting to exhale." -- Musharraf Ali Farooqi, author of Between Clay and Dust

"With The Heart of It All, the always brilliantChristian Kieferoffers readers a portrait of contemporary America that isdeeply insightful, often surprising, and tenderly, beautifully observed." Lauren Groff, author of Matrix

"For anyone who believes, as I do, that the best hope for our fractured country is local, not national, Christian Kiefers new novel The Heart of it All will provide a welcome balm for the spirit. Here are people worth spending time with, not because theyre perfect, but because theyre not. Whats wrong with them isnt nearly as consequential as how hard they fight for a better life, and not just for themselves. You set the book down and think, This is what were made of. Or should be."Richard Russo, author of Somebodys Fool

Author Bio

Christian Kiefer has a PhD in American literature from the University of California-Davis and directs the low-residency MFA at Ashland University. He is the author of three novels- The Infinite Tides, The Animals, and most recently Phantoms which was one of Kirkus Reviews and BBC's Best Books of 2019. He lives with his family in Placer County, California.