Douglas Kennedy: The Pursuit of Happiness

Already a bestselling author across Europe, Kennedy is just beginning to find audiences in the United States – and we’re happy to do our part. Douglas appeared at the store this summer for the release of his novel, Leaving the World, and we were hooked. He is as delightful as he is prolific; now that his 10th novel, The Pursuit of Happiness, is available in the U.S., Douglas is coming back to the store for a reading. Don’t miss it.

"This is the kind of writing that isn't supposed to be written anymore—a stunning conflation of individual destiny with the broad sweeps of history.... Let the hyperbole fall—this is the novel against which the rest of the year's output demands to be judged."
-- Express on Sunday (London)

In Kennedy's 10th novel, fledgling writer Sara Smythe has defied her parents' wishes, left Hartford, and begun a literary life in post-WWII New York. She lands a sought-after job at Life magazine and frequents parties in Greenwich Village hosted by her playwright brother, Eric. There, surrounded by Communists and artists, she meets Jack Malone, a Stars and Stripes journalist. The night they spend together upends Sara's plans and sends her, Jack, and Ericon a collision course with the repressive forces of the McCarthy era. The legacy of that night extends into the next generation, where Jack's daughter, Kate, is struggling to find her own identity in modern-day Manhattan, unaware of the forces that shaped her. - Publishers Weekly