Get our latest staff recommendations, classroom reading guides and discover assets for your stores and social media channels. Receive the Children’s Bookseller newsletter to your inbox when you sign up, plus more from Simon & Schuster.If you are an independent bookseller in the U.S. and would like to be added to our independent bookseller newsletter, please email indies@simonandschuster.com
Table of Contents
About The Book
Joan Herlihy is a semi-successful architect grasping at the illustrious commission that will catapult her to international renown, glossy décor magazines, and the luxe condo designs of Meier, Koolhaas, and Hadid: the incestuous cult of contemporary Starchitects. Unexpectedly, she finds her Venice Beach firm on the short list for a coveted private memorial -- a Napa billionaire's vanity tribute to relatives killed in the Christmas tsunami -- with life-changing consequences. Her brother Chester clings to a failing career as a location scout before suffering an accidental injury resulting from an outrageous prank; the tragicomic repercussions lead him through a maze of addiction, delusion, paranoia -- and ultimately, transcendence.
Virtually abandoned by her family, the indomitable Marjorie Herlihy -- mother, widow, and dreamer -- falls prey to a confidence scheme dizzying in its sadism and complexity. And unbeknownst to Marj and her children, the father who disappeared decades ago is alive and well nearby, recently in the local news for reasons that will prove to be both his redemption and his undoing. Spiraling toward catastrophe, separate lives collide as family members make a valiant attempt to reunite and create an enduring legacy. To rewrite a ruined American dream.
Deeply compassionate and violently irreverent, Memorial is a testament to faith and forgiveness, and a luminous tribute to spirituality in the twenty-first century. With an unflagging eye on a society ruptured by natural and unnatural disaster, and an insatiable love for humanity, Wagner delivers a masterpiece.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 12, 2006)
- Length: 528 pages
- ISBN13: 9781416541035
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
"[Memorial] records a softening of mood and a growing curiosity about other possibilities of being...one senses a moral intelligence missing from much contemporary fiction that aspires...to a Nabokovian poise and beauty."
-- Pankaj Mishra, The New York Times Book Review
"[Wagner] creates a tender vision of modern life, one in which preoccupations with popular culture are an imperfect carapace for the vulnerable hearts underneath."
-- The New Yorker
"Not since William Faulkner have we seen anything quite like this."
-- George Garrett, Hollins University, Virginia
"Memorial is an infinitely detailed, completely engrossing picture of modern America."
-- John Homans, New York Magazine
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Memorial eBook 9781416541035(3.9 MB)
- Author Photo (jpg): Bruce Wagner Photo Credit:(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit