Título: Rental House: A Novel
Autor: Weike Wang
Sinopse: From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations
Keru and Nate first meet in college, brought together by a joke at a Halloween party (would a “great white” costume mean dressing like a shark or a privileged Ivy League student?) and marrying a few years later. Misfits in their own families, they find in each other a feeling of home.
Keru is the only child of strict, well-educated Chinese immigrant parents who hold her to impossible standards even as an adult (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father). Nate is from a rural, white, working class family that has never trusted his intellectual ambitions or – now – the citizenship status of his “foreign” wife. Nevertheless, some years into their marriage, Keru and Nate find themselves incorporating their families into two carefully planned vacations. The results are disastrous and revealing.
First in a cozy beach house on Cape Cod, and later in a luxury bungalow in the Catskills, the couple is forced to confront the hidden truths at the core of their relationship. Alongside their giant sheepdog Mantou, Keru and Nate navigate visits from in-laws, a sibling, and surprising new friends, all while trying to determine if they have what it takes to make themselves and each other happy. How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) are needed to make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what does it take to shepherd everyone back together?
Told in wry, gimlet-eyed prose, Rental House is a concentrated gem of a novel about the seen and unforeseen forces like in-laws, careers, dreams, and fears, that shake up a marriage over time.
Contexto da obra
Como livro em inglês, esta obra costuma ganhar também uma camada própria de interesse editorial e linguístico. “Rental House: A Novel”, de Weike Wang, publicado pela editora Riverhead Books, em 2024 e com 224 páginas, integra a categoria Livros em Inglês. Por isso, o interesse da obra tende a se ampliar quando o leitor considera também a relação com a língua em que ela circula.
Editora: Riverhead Books
Páginas: 224
Ano: 2024
Edição:
Linguagem: en
ISBN: 0593545540
ISBN13: 9780593545546
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Riverhead Books apresentam uma variedade de narrativas que exploram tanto a complexidade das relações humanas quanto reflexões profundas sobre ciência, história e cultura. A experiência de leitura frequentemente envolve personagens em transição — seja na passagem da juventude para a vida adulta, em crises pessoais ou em contextos históricos marcantes —, com um tom que varia do introspectivo ao envolvente. O catálogo sugere obras que combinam histórias densas e multifacetadas, ora com ritmo mais narrativo e emocional, ora com abordagens mais informativas e analíticas, como em relatos científicos ou biográficos.
