Reunion: A Novel (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
"Kate Pulaski’s father is dead from a self-inflected gunshot wound and fresh from arriving in Chicago, she is coerced to turn around and join her family in Atlanta, not just her siblings, but also her father’s four subsequent wives and their kids too. Though she dreads the idea, it’s not that she has much else to do: her screenwriting career is at a standstill, she’s drowning in debt, her instructor job has no summer hours or income, and did I mention that her husband just found out she’s having an affair? Nobody else in the family knows her life is falling apart, and if they’re not going to open themselves up, Kate isn’t either. Kate is an "I dare you to like me" sort of character, the new breed of anti-heroine with more warts than the before photo in a Compound W ad. But if readers can just get past their fixation with wanting to be friends with their female protagonists, they just might be surprised; some of the richest and most rewarding reading can come from a novel like Reunion where you can peel away the lies and the hurts and find the humanity beneath."
— Daniel GoldinDescription
The author of the highly acclaimed The Fates Will Find Their Way returns with a novel about a far-flung family reunited for one weekend by their father's death.
Five minutes before her flight is set to take off, Kate Pulaski, failed screenwriter and newly failed wife with scarcely a hundred dollars to her name, learns that her estranged father has killed himself. More shocked than saddened by the news, she gives in to her siblings' request that she join them, along with her many half-siblings and most of her father's five former wives, in Atlanta, their birthplace, for a final farewell.
Written with huge heart and bracing wit, Reunion takes place over the following four days, as family secrets are revealed, personal foibles are exposed, and Kate -- an inveterate liar looking for a way to come clean-slowly begins to acknowledge the overwhelming similarities between herself and the man she never thought she'd claim as an influence, much less a father. Hannah Pittard's "engaging and vigorous" prose masterfully illuminates the problems that can divide modern families--and the ties that prove impossible to break. (Chicago Tribune)
About the Author
Hannah Pittard is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Reunion and The Fates Will Find Their Way. Her stories have appeared in the American Scholar and McSweeney's, among other publications. A consulting editor for Narrative magazine, she is a recipient of the 2006 Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. She is also the author of Listen to Me.
Praise For…
"Richly rewarding . . . A family drama you won't want to put down."—People
"Wry, emotionally insightful. . . Reunion succeeds because Kate is so sharp, and perceptive about everyone-except, of course, herself. . . . Kate's voice resonates and elevates the book beyond a family drama."—Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune (Editor's Choice)
"A nuanced and intriguing study of family and love, money and debt, failure and success, starring one of the most likeable flawed narrators to come along in some time."—Emily St. John Mandel, The Millions
"An indelible portrait of a family, messy and raw. Prickly Kate isn't a particularly sympathetic character-but she feels like a real one."—Entertainment Weekly
"Hannah Pittard is the writer you won't be able to stop talking about...She's the kind of writer who gets in your head and makes you evangelize to all of your friends-wide eyes, quick gasp: 'Do you know about Hannah Pittard?' If she's not on your radar yet, she should be."—Buzzfeed
"Fast-paced . . . [Pittard] makes writing short, lively scenes look easy."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Kate's narrative voice-raw, comic...is what makes this novel shine."—Bustle (An "October Best Book" selection)
"Emotionally astute. . . When this family of sorts gathers in Atlanta for the funeral, there is tension, pain, comedy, and finally, some healing and resolution. Kate is a winning narrator, whose insights into herself and her family keep the pages turning."—Publishers Weekly
"Truly unique and insightful . . . Reunion is a novel of death and life and family. It's about the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive, and what happens when those narratives break down."—Bookpage
