About this item
Highlights
- "Daddona's immersive debut is both a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a community...There are big ideas aplenty in here-and some bleak moments of moral horror as well.
- Author(s): Matthew Daddona
- 242 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, General
Description
About the Book
Matthew Daddona's debut novel, The Longitude of Grief, follows Henry Manero and generations of dispirited loners as they navigate inherited trauma in a kaleidoscopic study of the familial bonds that entangle and entrance us all.
Book Synopsis
"Daddona's immersive debut is both a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a community...There are big ideas aplenty in here-and some bleak moments of moral horror as well. A philosophical, intentionally digressive exploration of masculinity, toxic and otherwise."
-Kirkus Reviews
Henry Manero wants to grow up. But growing up is seldom the same as moving on. In this poetic and at times philosophical coming-of-age novel, Henry must learn to navigate his inherited guilt and trauma alongside several generations of dispirited loners-among them his absent father, suffering mother, three wild cousins, and bumbling stepfather. When Henry befriends an elderly man, Josef, whose sagaciousness presents new possibilities in life, he wonders if he can escape the trappings of his small town, and of his own mind. Will Henry achieve a newfound sense of self with the help of Josef, or is Josef yet another false star in a constellation of malevolent men with which Henry is surrounded?
Combining the lyricism of Justin Torres' We the Animals with the kaleidoscopic visions of boyhood in David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, Matthew Daddona's debut novel The Longitude of Grief is a tender rumination on the familial bonds that entangle and entrance us all.
Review Quotes
"Daddona's immersive debut is both a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a community...There are big ideas aplenty in here-and some bleak moments of moral horror as well. A philosophical, intentionally digressive exploration of masculinity, toxic and otherwise."
-Kirkus Reviews
"A multi-generational coming-of-age story beautifully crafted with language and setting that evoke Tom Drury or Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead. The poetry pulls us in and the finely drawn array of characters keeps us glued to the page until the very end."
-Bethany Ball, author of The Pessimists
"In The Longitude of Grief, Matthew Daddona traces the complex connections among a boy, his family, and his community. This dark coming-of-age tale explores the ebb and flow of intimacies and betrayals in a small town over the course of the years. Daddona's debut is rich with melancholy beauty and emotional acumen. A mesmerizing read."
-Helen Phillips, author of The Need
"A lush, sweeping, intergenerational novel that fearlessly takes you into the many conflicting rooms of the human soul."
-Simon Van Booy, bestselling author of Sipsworth