The Forrests

For fans of Zoe Heller and Zadie Smith, an extraordinary literary novel about the lasting impact of dysfunctional bonds, sibling love and rivalry on the individuals that comprise a family.

Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of New Zealand, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune.

Through the wilderness of a commune to falling in love to early marriage and motherhood; from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return of love, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes, revelations come to light, death changes everything, but somehow, life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in justbeing won't let her go.

In a narrative that shifts and moves, growing as wild as the characters, The Forrests is an extraordinary literary achievement.

Emily Perkins was born in 1970. She is the author of Not Her Real Name, a prizewinning collection of short stories that won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and the novels Leave Before You Go, The New Girl, and Novel About My Wife, winner of the Believer Book Award.