The Usual Desire to Kill

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An often hilarious, surprisingly moving portrait of a long-married couple, seen through the eyes of their wickedly observant daughterfor fans of A Man Called Ove and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Mirandas parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983.

Mirandas father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Mirandas mother likes to bring conversation back to the War, although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports the usual desire to kill.

This wry, propulsive story about a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.

Reviews

"Empathetic... intimate... Barnes explores long marriage, sibling rivalry, truths behind shifting memories, and family secrets as well as examining the decisions people make in life, the long-term effects of those decisions, and how well one truly knows the people they love." Booklist, STARRED review

"Playwright Barnes combines humor with pathos in her heart-wrenching debut...the genius of the novel lies in the ways Barnes highlights how parents can never be fully known to their children, no matter how observant their children are... An unforgettable story about the limits of judging others." Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

I love nothing more than reading about eccentric families, and the family in The Usual Desire to Kill is just that. Miranda and her sister work to uncover the true story of their parents' marriage, only to have their brilliant, quirky mother and father deflect them at every turn. Barnes has written a witty, moving novel about characters who, even when they seem incapable of speaking honestly, are worth listening to nonetheless. Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward