Come Again No More

By Jack Todd
(Touchstone, Hardcover, 9781416598497, 368pp.)

Publication Date: September 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Paperback

Categories: General

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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the September 2010 Indie Notables
“In this second volume of a planned trilogy which began with Sun Going Down, Todd expertly captures a time in American history when two disasters occurred simultaneously: the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The strained family relations and daily challenges of rural life reminded me of stories in my own family's history. While the story belongs to Eli and his granddaughter Emaline, some of the supporting characters are among the best I've ever read. I'm hooked on the Paint family, and anxiously await the next book.”
-- Bob Boyd, Steve's Books & Magazines, Tulsa, OK


Description

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed Sun Going Down comes an intimate portrait of a marriage and a family struggling to survive turbulent times that echo our own.

THE PAINT FAMILY built an American empire on the legendary strength of their character, their wit, and their resolve, but the foreclosures, bank failures, and joblessness of the Great Depression may bring their world down around them. The family’s foundation is further weakened by a rift running through two generations, scarred over by stubbornness and pain. Come Again No More is a uniquely American story about a family navigating a changing world and the tough choices it presents.

The indomitable family patriarch, Eli, owns everything as far as the eye can see, but there is an emptiness in his heart. After a dramatic accident leaves him struggling for life, he must reckon with the decisions he made that separated him from the daughter he loved most. A chance for redemption presents itself in his granddaughter Emaline. Eli has faced his own mortality many times, but his pride seems to have a death grip on him.

Emaline marries Jake, a womanizing prizefighter who promises to help her realize her dream of making a life on a farm. But Jake’s inner demons and nature itself conspire against Emaline’s fierce determination to make their marriage work. Life sends Emaline many joys when she least expects them, but ultimately, she must make tough decisions about holding on and letting go.

Based on the author’s family letters and diaries, Come Again No More is a bittersweet novel, a moving and vivid portrayal of a family’s triumphs and tragedies paralleling the glories and shameful underbelly of a nation struggling through the Great Depression.




About the Author

Jack Todd is the author of the novels Sun Going Down and Come Again No More and the memoir Desertion, which won the Quebec Writer’s Federation First Book Prize and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction. Visit his website at www.jacktoddtheauthor.com.

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