Gravity Is The Thing
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4.2 • 41 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
'Astonishingly wonderful and magical and moving and uplifting and DIFFERENT.' Marian Keyes
Abigail Sorensen has spent her life trying to unwrap the events of 1990.
It was the year she started receiving random chapters from a self-help book called The Guidebook in the post.
It was also the year Robert, her brother, disappeared on the eve of her sixteenth birthday.
She believes the absurdity of The Guidebook and the mystery of her brother's disappearance must be connected.
Now thirty-five, owner of The Happiness Café and mother of four-year-old Oscar, Abigail has been invited to learn the truth behind The Guidebook at an all-expenses-paid retreat.
What she finds will be unexpected, life-affirming, and heartbreaking.
A story with extraordinary heart, warmth and wisdom.
PRAISE FOR GRAVITY IS THE THING
'I loved this book. It's rare for me to have no idea where a story is headed but I only knew that I didn't want it to end. Funny, heartbreaking and clever with a mystery at its heart.' Jojo Moyes
'A brilliant, beautiful, hilarious, heartbreaking, extraordinary book. I say this without bias, only awe.' Liane Moriarty
'Jaclyn Moriarty writes with such intimacy and charm, it's like talking to your dream best friend. But then she weaves a story so compelling, and heartbreaking, and profound, it could only have come from an extraordinary writer.' Laura Bloom
'A thoughtful, beautifully written, truly original, and often hilarious meditation on loss, hope, the self-help industry, and the difficulties of navigating life on earth.' Emily St. John Mandel
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This tender and frank adult debut by YA novelist Moriarty (The Year of Secret Assignments) follows one woman's search for happiness in a world as brimming with promises of healing as it is overflowing with letdowns. On her 16th birthday, Abi Sorenson's beloved brother went missing. On the very same day, she received the first chapter of a mysterious self-help book titled The Guidebook in the mail, and received chapters intermittently through the years the chapters cover everything from the death of metaphysics (in a single paragraph) to winking criticism of Keats to more traditional self-help metaphors. Now 36 with a young son, and 20 years into the lessons of The Guidebook and still reeling from the unresolved circumstances of her brother's disappearance, as well as grieving her ruined marriage Abi is invited to a remote island to learn the truth about why these messages came to her. The course ultimately leads her back to her hometown and an opportunity to further explore the mysteries surrounding The Guidebook with others whose life it has haunted which, she hopes, might somehow help her find her brother. With an eye as keen for human idiosyncrasies as Miranda July's, and a sense of humor as bright and surprising as Maria Semple's, this is a novel of pure velocity; it sucks the reader into Abi's problems and her joys in equal, brilliant measure. A complex dissection of the self-help industry, as well as a complete and moving portrait of a difficult, delightful woman, Moriarty proves her adult novels can live up to her YA work's reputation.
Customer Reviews
Gravity is the thing
Loved this book for its quirkiness and intrigue. A really fascinating journey of thought and characters.
If your looking for a book from left of field this is it. Do read it.
Thought provoking and unique
I raced through this book; it was truly unputdownable. I couldn’t get enough of it! I found it so unique and different, and so thought provoking and unique. It was the first book in years to make me cry. Highly recommended.
Gravity is the thing
Beautifully written, words that are ‘tasted’ and explored in a way that made me rethink my own position in my life.