A Field Guide to the North American Family

GARTH RISK HALLBERG's first novel, City on Fire, was a New York Times and international best seller, has been translated into seventeen languages, and was named one of the best books of 2015 by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Vogue. His short stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Glimmer Train, and Best New American Voices 2008, and he has written critical essays for The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, The Millions, and Slate. A two-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, he lives in New York with his wife and children.

Hallberg inhabits each of his characters completely, and there is some gorgeous image or turn of phrase on almost every page. Especially impressive are the voices of the kids in the story, which feel natural and true . . . A pleasure to read.   New York Times Book Review

Evocative of masters of American suburbia such as Updike, Cheever, Salter, and Richard Yates . . . Conjuring a dreamily filmic spell, with shades of American Beauty and The Ice Storm, this is a work that can be approached (and rediscovered) a number of ways, all equally rewarding. It s an ideal coffee table or bedside companion, to be dipped into for flashes of pleasure.   The Independent (UK)
 
Provocative . . . There s no denying the author s way with words . . . There s virtuosity at work.   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"In this stunningly beautiful, cross-referenced exploration of suburban intimacy, the story of two struggling families emerges gradually, achingly and never the same way twice. Hallberg's prose is lacquered and precise, and the kaleidoscope of collected images forms a shifting, luminous backdrop. A perfect marriage between sculptured form and wondrous content. Read it. Now." Reif Larsen, author of I Am Radar
 
Hallberg has a fine novelist s grace and sensitivity. Kirkus Reviews
 
"A Field Guide to the North American Family reads like magic, like a private book of spells meant to keep away all the things that have already happened; each word and image matters. It's a gorgeous labyrinth of a book." Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances