Swapping Purples for Yellows

by Matthew Duffus

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Pub Date Aug 06 2019 | Archive Date Aug 06 2019

Southern Fried Karma

General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction

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Description

For Professor Rob Sutherland, homecoming weekend is challenging enough on its own. Combined with Halloween, reunion events, and the return of a major donor, it’s almost too much to bear. While Rob and his colleagues endure alumni and presidential receptions, a losing football game, and the unveiling of the donor’s gift, his wife contemplates a life separate from her family, and their high-school-aged daughter finds herself entangled with several of her father’s students. Over the course of three days, the family is forced to confront the secrets they keep from one another and the flaws they deny even to themselves.

Advance Praise

“Swapping Purples for Yellows, the rich and mellifluous debut novel by Matthew Duffus, is more than an academic romp, as it takes on family, gambling, video-gaming, love young and old, and just about everything in between. A terrific read, constantly engaging.” ~ Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures

“Over the course of one fateful Homecoming weekend, this unforgettable cast of characters makes us think, laugh, and cry. From a senior about to embark on his adult life, to a louche professor wondering what’s become of his; from a too-smart teenager chafing to get out of town, to a restless mother on the brink; these characters are so well-drawn you could swear you've been friends with them for years. This book brims with insights about families, academia, romance, expectation, desire, disappointment, and all manners of life crisis. I couldn't put it down.” ~Amy Shearn, author of The Mermaid of Brooklyn and Unseen City

“In this deeply-engaging novel set on a small, college campus in North Carolina, Matthew Duffus dramatizes issues of contemporary life: the rapid growth of technology, the evolution of higher education, the shifting of family roles and sexual identities. Despite fierce passions and complicated emotional struggles, Duffus’ characters are remarkably humane. Shifting points of view compellingly render the four members of the Sutherland family, several students, professors, and noteworthy graduates who return for a Homecoming Weekend that turns out differently than anyone anticipated. Swapping Purples for Yellows is by turns moving and comical, and the fully-realized characters will long remain alive in readers’ minds and hearts.” ~Allen Wier, author of Tejano and Late Night, Early Morning