Brady Udall

A New York Times bestseller: from a luminous storyteller, a highly anticipated new novel about the American family writ large. “Udall masterfully portrays the hapless foibles and tragic yearnings of our fellow humans.”—San Francisco Chronicle Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. Brady Udall, one of our finest American fiction writers, tells a tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family’s future. Like John Irving and Richard Yates, Udall creates characters that engage us to the fullest as they grapple with the nature of need, love, and belonging. Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy—pushed to its outer limits.

The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel

Half-Apache orphan Edgar is taken from his home on an Arizona reservation after he is run over by a mailman, and goes from the hospital to a school for delinquents to a Mormon foster family before his eventual return home.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

Rambling and generous . . . it reads at times like a John Irving novel touched up by Roy Blount Jr. . . . Sweet, sad, and refreshing. New York Times Book Review Edgar s] soul is as spotless as John Wayne s .45, and so is Udall s sharp and rangy prose. His similes sting, his sentences go bang, and his chapters roll like the wagon wheels across the harsh Mormon desert of right and wrong. GQ Extraordinary. . . . There are pages that are just fall-down funny. . . . It s like nothing else you ve ever read. Newsweek Vibrant, big-hearted. . . . A poignant, picaresque odyssey. Chicago Tribune A marvelous first novel. . . . An adept mix of humor and pathos. Los Angeles Times An ingenious tale that] takes its heart from Dickens and its soul from America s great outlaw West. Elle

A Novel

Michel Lederer

Le Destin miraculeux d'Edgar Mint

Eleven stories set in the small towns of Utah and Arizona consider the idea of letting loose in all its forms and include "Buckeye the Elder," "The Opposite of Loneliness," "Purple Hearts," "Vernon," and "Junk Court."

Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories

“Funny, unpredictable, and abounding with strange beauty . . . a fierce new voice of the American West.”—Outside Exploding with an unsettling exuberance, Brady Udall’s stories traverse a geography of lost love, fragmented lives, and satisfying revenge. From the night a six-foot-three Apache Indian holding a goat steps into a moonlit Arizona backyard in "Midnight Raid" to the pivotal moment when a man, delirious from a dental extraction, gets rescued by a stranger in the title story, Udall injects his stories and characters with equal parts darkness and humor. These are sad and sweet stories, moving from the familiar to surprising destinations. But even when disaster looms, Udall's fine comic sense sustains his men and women in their sometimes extravagant efforts to connect and cope. Plunged in the moment, these stories have velocity; they spray gravel as they take off.

Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all mid-life crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart.

The Lonely Polygamist

"An ingenious tale [that] takes its heart from Dickens and its soul from America’s great outlaw West." —Elle Half Apache and mostly orphaned, Edgar Presley Mint’s trials begin on an Arizona reservation at the age of seven, when the mailman’s jeep accidentally runs over his head. As he is shunted from the hospital to a school for delinquents to a Mormon foster family, comedy, pain, and trouble accompany Edgar through a string of larger-than-life experiences. Through it all, readers will root for this irresistible innocent who never truly loses heart and whose quest for the mailman leads him to an unexpected home.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: A Novel

A New York Times bestseller: "Udall masterfully portrays the hapless foibles and tragic yearnings of our fellow humans." —San Francisco Chronicle Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. Brady Udall, one of our finest American fiction writers, tells a tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family’s future. Like John Irving and Richard Yates, Udall creates characters that engage us to the fullest as they grapple with the nature of need, love, and belonging. Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy—pushed to its outer limits.

Bert Meelker

Met zijn schrijfmachine als enige houvast en de hoop om ooit de postbode te vinden die in het reservaat over zijn hoofd reed, overleeft een indiaanse weesjongen sadisten, criminelen en fanatieke Mormonen.

De buitensporige lotgevallen van Edgar Mint

Eleven stories set in the small towns of Utah and Arizona consider the idea of letting loose in all its forms and include "Buckeye the Elder," "The Opposite of Loneliness," "Purple Hearts," "Vernon," and "Junk Court"

Stories

Letting Loose the Hounds

De langverwachte nieuwe roman van een briljante verhalenverteller. Golden Richards, echtgenoot van vier vrouwen en vader van achtentwintig kinderen, gaat gebukt onder een enorme midlifecrisis. Het gaat bergafwaarts met zijn bouwbedrijf en zijn gezin is uitgedijd tot een overbevolkt mini hertogdom dat ten onder dreigt te gaan aan opstand en rivaliteit. Zijn drie huizen veranderen van veilige havens in vijandige forten waarin het hem moeite kost niet te verdwalen. Ondanks de vele mensen om hem heen kan hij zijn verdriet om de dood van een van zijn dochters, die bij een ongeluk omkwam, met niemand delen. Langzamerhand begint hij te twijfelen aan zijn eigen vermogen tot liefhebben. Brady Udall, een van de beste jonge Amerikaanse schrijvers, vertelt in De eenzame polygamist het tragikomische verhaal van een diepgelovige man die verstrikt raakt in een affaire die de toekomst van zijn gezin op het spel zet. Zoals bij John Irving en Richard Yates raken Udalls personages ons tot in het diepst van onze ziel, als ze worstelen met hun behoefte aan liefde en hun verlangen om ergens bij te horen.

Eenzame polygamist

Als Edgar Mint zeven jaar oud is, wordt hij overreden door de postbode. Wanneer hij na drie maanden uit zijn coma ontwaakt is zijn moeder spoorloos verdwenen. Edgar gaat naar kostschool en houdt met moeite stand in deze harde jongenswereld. Zijn enige toevluchtsoord is een oude typemachine waarop hij al zijn gedachten en belevenissen kwijt kan. Na verloop van tijd ontfermt een mormoons gezin zich over hem, en Edgar realiseert zich dat God hem om een speciale reden in leven heeft gehouden. Dit is het begin van zijn buitengewone zoektocht. Brady Udall schrijft op een hartverwarmende en ontroerende manier over de avonturen van een Apache-jongen die op zoek gaat naar zijn verleden en zijn eigen plek op de wereld. Het is onmogelijk om niet geraakt te worden door de lotgevallen van Edgar Mint.

Brady Udall

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