The O'Briens

An unforgettable saga of love, loss, and exhilarating change spanning half a century in the lives of a restless family, from the author of the acclaimed novel "The Law of Dreams." " " "The O'Briens" is a family story unlike any told before, a tale that pours straight from the heart of a splendid, tragic, ambitious clan. In Joe O'Brien--grandson of a potato-famine emigrant, and a backwoods boy, railroad magnate, patriarch, brooding soul--Peter Behrens gives us a fiercely compelling man who exchanges isolation and poverty in the Canadian wilds for a share in the dazzling riches and consuming sorrows of the twentieth century. When Joe meets Iseult Wilkins in Venice, California, the story of their courtship--told in Behrens's gorgeous, honed style--becomes the first movement in a symphony of the generations. Husband and wife, brothers, sisters-in-law, children and grandchildren, the O'Briens engage unselfconsciously with their century, and we experience their times not as historical tableaux but as lives passionately lived. At the heart of this clan--at the heart of the novel--is mystery and madness grounded in the history of Irish sorrow. "The O'Briens" is the story of a man, a marriage, and a family, told with epic precision and wondrous imagination.

About the Author :
Peter Behrens is the author of "The Law of Dreams "(which received Canada's Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and was published around the world to wide acclaim) and "Night Driving, " a collection of short stories. His stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including "The Atlantic "and "Tin House. "Honors he has received include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University's Creative Writing Program.

Review :
"Impressive . . . World War II hovers in this novel's path like flak and rips the lives of the novel's characters to shreds. The last hundred pages are a powerful evocation of that war's effect . . . A major accomplishment. " --"The New York Times Book Review " "As befits a saga so ambitious in design, there is an able mixture of agony and ecstasy throughout. Time and time again, Behrens proves himself a first-rate seanchai, the Irish term for a storyteller, by bringing the O'Brien clan to life on the page. En route, he fashions a topographically capacious narrative that relishes the scents of Santa Barbara, the pastoral beauty of the Ojai Valley and the tidal mantras of coastal Maine." --"The Washington Post" "Powerful . . . Moments of grace and romance are rocked by cruel words and violence in this epic, a piece of rough beauty itself." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred) "Illuminating . . . An epic along the lines of "Middlesex" in the way it follows a family through time and examines the results of their actions . . . A brooding novel, engrossing in its scope and detail, "The O'Briens" keeps sight of the family's personal stories amid the larger history of much of the twentieth century." --"Booklist" "Behrens's characters are engaging and the history of the various cities, budding industries, and wars expertly handled." --"Library Journal " "Peter Behrens's family saga "The O'Briens" (Pantheon) spans the first half of the Canadian twentieth century, finding a parallel epic in an unforgettable narrative of marriage." --"Vogue.com " "The next generation in Irish literature . . . A fascinating depiction of how Irish sorrow ripples through time." "--Bookpage ""[A] deftly painted portrait of a marriage . . . Two smart, determined individuals are hardly the recipe for a tranquil marriage. But they certainly make life--and fiction--more interesting." --"The Seattle Times ""Gritty a Praise for "The O'Briens " "Powerful . . . This is a family possessed of a 'strange, rough beauty, ' as [a] priest describes them, and it's this dichotomy that keeps them struggling internally . . . Moments of grace and romance are rocked by cruel words and violence in this epic, a piece of rough beauty itself." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred) "Illuminating . . . . An epic along the lines of "Middlesex" in the way it follows a family through time and examines the results of their actions . . . . A brooding novel, engrossing in its scope and detail, "The O'Briens" keeps sight of the family's personal stories amid the larger history of much of the twentieth century." --"Booklist" "Behrens's characters are engaging and the history of the various cities, budding industries, and wars expertly handled." --"Library Journal " "Peter Behrens's family saga "The O'Briens" (Pantheon) spans the first half of the Canadian twentieth century, finding a parallel epic in an unforgettable narrative of marriage." --"Vogue.com "Canadian Praise for "THE O'BRIENS" "A distinctly twentieth-century family epic . . . Pitch-perfect." "--National Post" " " "Impressive in its scope and ambitious in its goals. Some of [the] descriptions are flat-out jaw-dropping . . . In giving his family a past few of them knew existed, Behrens has made" The O'Briens "unforgettably alive.""" "--The Globe and Mail" " " "Having read both" Buddenbrooks "and "The O'Briens "this summer, I can affirm they are definitely in the same league--great, juicy tales that will make you take a second look at annoying relatives. They are, after all, part of the big picture, otherwise known as history and destiny." "--The Gazette "(Montreal)"" " " Praise for "The Law of Dreams" "Absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written . . . A masterly novel." "--The New York Times Book Review" " " "Stunningly lyric . . . A work of richly emphatic imagin Canadian Praise for "THE O'BRIENS" "A distinctly twentieth-century family epic . . . Pitch-perfect." "--National Post" " " "Impressive in its scope and ambitious in its goals. Some of [the] descriptions are flat-out jaw-dropping . . . In giving his family a past few of them knew existed, Behrens has made" The O'Briens "unforgettably alive.""" "--The Globe and Mail" " " "Having read both" Buddenbrooks "and "The O'Briens "this summer, I can affirm they are definitely in the same league--great, juicy tales that will make you take a second look at annoying relatives. They are, after all, part of the big picture, otherwise known as history and destiny." "--The Gazette "(Montreal)"" " " Praise for "The Law of Dreams" "Absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written . . . A masterly novel." "--The New York Times Book Review" " " "Stunningly lyric . . . A work of richly emphatic imagination that reminds us once again how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands." "--Los Angeles Times" " " "A novel that animates the past this vibrantly should make volumes of mere history blush. 'Life burns hot, ' Fergus thinks, and so do these pages." "--The Washington Post Book World" " " "Behrens's work recalls Liam O'Flaherty's epic novel Famine; both writers have a stark style admirably suited to conveying the horrors of starvation and despair. But Behrens's language also has a visceral rhythm, [melding] the humble and the lyrical.""" "--The New Yorker" Canadian Praise for "THE O'BRIENS" "A distinctly twentieth-century family epic . . . Pitch-perfect." "--National Post" " " "Impressive in its scope and ambitious in its goals. Some of [the] descriptions are flat-out jaw-dropping . . . In giving his family a past few of them knew existed, Behrens has made" The O'Briens "unforgettably alive.""" "--The Globe and Mail" " " "Having read both" Buddenbrooks "and "The O'Briens "this summer, I can affirm they are definitely in the same league--great, juicy tales that will make you take a second look at annoying relatives. They are, after all, part of the big picture, otherwise known as history and destiny." "--The Gazette "(Montreal)"" " " Praise for "The Law of Dreams" "Absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written . . . A masterly novel." "--The New York Times Book Review" " " "Stunningly lyric . . . A work of richly emphatic imagination that reminds us once again how powerful historical fict "The book is impressive in its scope and ambitious in its goals. Behrens's writing is always tight, and some of his descriptions are flat-out jaw-dropping . . . . In giving his family a past few of them knew existed, Behrens has made ["The O'Briens"] unforgettably alive." --"The Globe and Mail"