Ein wenig Leben

About this book

A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST. A MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST. WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE. A stunning portrait of the enduring grace of friendship (NPR) about the families we are born into and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way theyre broke adrift and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind handsome Willem an aspiring actor; JB a quick-witted sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn brilliant enigmatic Jude who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades their relationships deepen and darken tinged by addiction success and pride. Yet their greatest challenge each comes to realize is Jude himself by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that hell not only be unable to overcomebut that will define his life forever.