Happiness Falls
'I loved this book.' Gabrielle Zevin
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- €13.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
OPRAH DAILY'S NO. 1 SUMMER PAPERBACK 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
FINALIST FOR THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD
AMAZON EDITOR'S CHOICE & TOP TWENTY NOVEL OF THE YEAR
'A Brilliant, satisfying, compassionate mystery.'
GABRIELLE ZEVIN
'Bittersweet, sensitive and moving.'
GUARDIAN
'I can't remember a book with more layers. . . I was riveted through the last page.'
JODI PICOULT
Mia Parkson's life is turned upside down when her stay-at-home dad, the family's anchor, goes missing. The only witness? Eugene - her younger, nonspeaking teenage brother.
As the Police struggle for leads, and her mother and twin brother struggle to keep things together at home, Mia gains access to key clues about her father's disappearance. Headstrong, hyper analytical, and with secrets of her own, she decides to try and solve the case. But could Mia's impulsive actions be putting her whole family in danger?
'Gorgeous . a layered and innovative exploration of family, love, happiness, and race.'
JEAN KWOK
'Stunning!'
JO BROWNING WROE
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Melding mystery and philosophy, Happiness Falls digs into life’s biggest questions. The novel follows Korean American college student Mia and her twin brother, John, who return home during the COVID lockdown to hunker down with their parents and their nonverbal younger brother, Eugene. When Eugene returns from a walk with his father alone and bloodied, the family is thrust into a terrible mystery—and we get to join them. Along the way, narrator Mia gets sidetracked into profound musings on race, family, psychology and the nature of happiness. It might sound heavy, but author Angie Kim seamlessly weaves weighty themes into a speedy pageturner of a story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kim's bittersweet second novel (following Miracle Creek) intertwines an intimate family drama, a missing-persons mystery, and a philosophical rumination on happiness. Korean American college student Mia Parkson and her twin brother, John, are spending the Covid-19 lockdown at their parents' house in suburban Virginia. One morning, their autistic 14-year-old brother, Eugene, races home from a hike with their father, his clothing spattered with blood. Their father is nowhere to be found, and Eugene—who is nonverbal—isn't able to say what happened. While Mia and her family help authorities sift a bewildering array of clues, Mia studies analytical notes her father left behind, which posit that the experience of happiness is relative to an expected outcome—leading her to wonder whether her father is subjecting them all to an elaborate social experiment. Meanwhile, the Parksons investigate therapies Eugene has been undergoing that suggest they have underestimated his intelligence and ability to communicate—a revelation that dovetails with Mia's own complex thoughts on how factors including race, language, and emotion all impact people's interpretation of information and ability to relate to one another. Readers will be fascinated with how Kim bends the structure of a whodunit to serve a broader exploration of the dynamics of human relations and moved by her skill at wresting joy from tragedy.
