Day
‘Unsparing and tender’ Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn
‘A brilliant novel from our most brilliant of writers’ Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon
‘A quietly stunning achievement’ Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, falling in and out of love, losing the things that are most precious – and learning to go on.
April 5th, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house – and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. And then there is Nathan, age ten, taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents.
April 5th, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe. Isabel and Dan circle each other warily, communicating mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts – and his secret Instagram life – for company.
April 5th, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family comes together to reckon with a new, very different reality – with what they’ve learned, what they’ve lost, and how they might go on.
From the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Day is a searing, exquisitely crafted meditation on love and loss, and the struggles and limitations of family life – how to live together and apart, and maybe even escape the marriage plot entirely.
‘Cunningham is one of our great American writers, and here is another masterpiece … Read it and be changed’ Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less
”'In Day, Michael Cunningham displays his great gift for creating memorable characters, for noticing the world in all its oddness and beauty, for writing about love and loss in tones that are both unsparing and tender. In this book, he also sharply and brilliantly captures contemporary New York” - Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn
”'Day is a novel about the collisions of love within our days. Michael Cunningham crafts a glorious sentence and at the same time he tells an achingly compelling story that speaks precisely to the times we live in. And it all flows so damn gorgeously that at times you just want to suspend the sacred day itself and hold it close, never let it, or the characters, go. A brilliant novel from our most brilliant of writers” - Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon
”'Cunningham, the perennial master of rendering the quotidian with a profound and deeply considered eye for human frailty, returns with a book that exemplifies the hallmarks of his style: lush, erudite, voracious in its seeking, and, like a true poet, remakes the world in his descriptions, freshened with care, compassion, and tinged with radiant heat of grief. What a quietly stunning achievement” - Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
”'Cunningham is one of our great American writers, and here is another masterpiece. Day shows all his extraordinary gifts of epic sweep and intricate detail, lyrical language and plain hard words, memory and imagination, love and hope and loss. It does what only great books can do. Read it and be changed” - Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less
”'Few writers capture the crazy contradictions of modern life with as much clarity and wisdom as Michael Cunningham.Dayglows with beauty and energy; its characters slip off the page and into your life” - Tash Aw, author of We, the Survivors