About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherNorton & Company, Incorporated, w. w.

ISBN-10039334388X

ISBN-139780393343885

eBay Product ID (ePID)27038284331

Product Key Features

Book TitleHeft : a Novel

Number of Pages368 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2012

TopicPsychological, Family Life

GenreFiction

AuthorLiz Moore

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight12 Oz

Item Length8.2 in

Item Width5.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

ReviewsA bittersweet novel, Heft is peopled by men and women so isolated by their fear or rejection, they've ceased to seek meaningful connections., This is not a novel with a happy ending, and that's a good thing. Moore doesn't tie her story up in a pretty package and hand it to the reader with care, but artfully acknowledges in the end that some heavy loads cannot easily be left behind., Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear-eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication., This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal -- she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it., In Heft, Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!, [Moore] writes with compassion and emotional insight but resists sentimentality...Heft leads to hope., Few novelists of recent memory have put our bleak isolation into words as clearly as Liz Moore does in her new novel., Every once in a while, you read a book with such well-written, memorable characters that you know you're going to remember them forever...Heft is a wonderful oddball of a book. I loved it., Heft achieves real poignancy...The warmth, the humanity and the hope in this novel make it compelling and pleasurable., This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal--she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it., Moore's writing is clear, persuasive, and totally engaging, bringing her characters to life in all their sweet, quirky glory., Few novelists of recent memory have put our bleak isolation into words as clearly as Liz Moore does. . . . By the end we are in love with the characters and just want to see them happy., Arthur Opp is heartbreaking. A 58-year old former professor of literature, he weighs 550 lbs., hasn't left his Brooklyn apartment in years and is acutely attuned to both the painful and analgesic dimensions of his self-imposed solitude. Kel Keller, a handsome and popular high school athlete whose mother drinks too much to take care of him or even herself, faces his own wrenching struggles. The pair, apparently connected only by a slender thread, at first seem unlikely as co-narrators and protagonists of this novel, but they both become genuine heroes as their separate journeys through loneliness finally intersect. Though Moore's narrative is often deeply sad, it is never maudlin. She writes with compassion and emotional insight but resists sentimentality , briskly moving her plot forward, building suspense and empathy. Most impressive is her ability to thoroughly inhabit the minds of Arthur and Kel; these are robust, complex characters to champion, not pity. The single word of the title is obviously a reference to Arthur's morbid obesity, but it also alludes to the weight of true feelings and the courage needed to confront them. Heft leads to hope., Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication.

SynopsisFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River: "A stunningly sad and heroically hopeful tale...This is a beautiful novel about relationships of the most makeshift kind." --O, The Oprah Magazine, Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel's mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur's. Told with warmth and intelligence through Arthur and Kel's own quirky and lovable voices, Heft is the story of two improbable heroes whose connection transforms both their lives.