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Casebook: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From the acclaimed and award-winning author of Anywhere But Here and My Hollywood, a powerful new novel about a young boy’s quest to uncover the mysteries of his unraveling family. What he discovers turns out to be what he least wants to know: the inner workings of his parents’ lives. And even then he can’t stop searching.
Miles Adler-Hart starts eavesdropping to find out what his mother is planning for his life. When he learns instead that his parents are separating, his investigation deepens, and he enlists his best friend, Hector, to help. Both boys are in thrall to Miles’s unsuspecting mother, Irene, who is “pretty for a mathematician.” They rifle through her dresser drawers, bug her telephone lines, and strip-mine her computer, only to find that all clues lead them to her bedroom, and put them on the trail of a mysterious stranger from Washington, D.C.
Their amateur detective work starts innocently but quickly takes them to the far reaches of adult privacy as they acquire knowledge that will affect the family’s well-being, prosperity, and sanity. Burdened with this powerful information, the boys struggle to deal with the existence of evil and concoct modes of revenge on their villains that are both hilarious and naïve. Eventually, haltingly, they learn to offer animal comfort to those harmed and to create an imaginative path to their own salvation.
Casebook brilliantly reveals an American family both both coming apart at the seams and, simultaneously, miraculously reconstituting itself to sustain its members through their ultimate trial. Mona Simpson, once again, demonstrates her stunning mastery, giving us a boy hero for our times whose story remains with us long after the the novel's end.
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“Simpson’s sixth novel portrays a Santa Monica, Calif., family through the eyes of the only son, Miles Adler-Hart, a habitual eavesdropper who watches his mother, Irene, with great intensity. From an early age, Miles senses the vulnerability of his mother, a recently divorced mathematician, and throughout his childhood and adolescence feels the need to look out for her…Ultimately, this is a story about a son’s love for his mother, and Simpson’s portrayal of utter loyalty is infectious.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“This beautifully crafted novel shows us a reconfigured California family through the eyes of a smart, funny adolescent longing to keep hope alive.”
— People -
“Captivating…Her aim is to lyrically capture the time between childhood and adulthood, as fleeting and delicate as the golden-hour light that filmmakers chase.”
— Washington Post -
“Adult relationships are the true mystery here. Simpson manipulates the tropes of suspense fiction astutely, and the touches of noir are delicate.”
— New Yorker -
“A heartbreaker…[with] enormous emotional power…Simpson’s story unfolds with magnetic force.”
— Boston Globe -
“A hybrid of Harriet the Spy and Chandler’s Philip Marlowe books.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“What’s most remarkable is how Simpson effortlessly snares readers inside a full, intimate world…and for a few delicious days allows readers to relish the innocence of childhood and the intense yearning to discover the secrets of life.”
— Miami Herald -
“Wonderfully dramatic.”
— Oregonian -
“Simpson’s latest ensnaring, witty, and perceptive novel of family life under pressure in Los Angeles mines the same terrain as her much-lauded last novel, the immigrant-nanny-focused My Hollywood…Exceptionally incisive, fine-tuned, and charming…Brings fresh understanding and keen humor to the complexities intrinsic to each stage of life and love.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“In this sensitively rendered bildungsroman, Simpson recalls authentic, detailed memories of childhood in writing this clever, insightful, and at times hilarious story about family, friendship, and love in all its complex iterations.”
— Library Journal -
“A child of divorce turns private eye in the latest well-observed study of domestic dysfunction from Simpson.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week, April 2014
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About Mona Simpson
Mona Simpson’s books include Anywhere but Here, The Lost Father, and A Regular Guy. She was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and has won the Whiting Writer’s Award, a Guggenheim Grant, the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation. She has taught at Bard College since 1988.
About Nick Podehl
Nick Podehl is a professional voice actor. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, many of which have won prestigious awards, including fourteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. He currently lives and works around Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife.