The Possibilities

From the author of The Descendants, a novel about grief, love and parenthood.

Like the wonderful American novelist Anne Tyler, Hemmings writes witty, immersive, immensely readable and deeply humane fiction about entirely believable characters.

This is a novel that creeps up on you, its frequent bursts of humour masking a gentle yet astute examination of the various ways in which people deal with bereavement and the bereaved.

A remarkable tale of loss and love and a twist that will completely sideline you

I was reminded of the film Little Miss Sunshine; the book has the same unsentimental approach to life’s big events.

This is a satisfying and elegant insight into families, and what grief does to us - and likely another bestseller for Hart Hemmings.

Hemmings manages to combine an examination of the effects of Cully’s death on his mother, family and friends with a wit and lightness of touch that makes this finally an uplifting read… The best novel I’ve read this year.

A piercing, empathetic story about parenthood and unfathomable heartbreak and manages to bring humor and hope to her characters… an astute and sensitive examination of relationships, loss and grief.

Hemmings deftly deploys her idyllic setting, leavens tragedy with humor, avoids sentimentality, and offers characters whom readers will find very appealing.

With a deft and dry humor, Hemmings tackles the unique and unexpectedly humorous ways in which one is expected to mourn… But, on closer inspection, the novel is a treatise on parenthood: Sarah struggles less with Cully’s death, and more with the fear that she never really knew him at all.

A graceful, subtle primer on freedom - the means by which we free (and forgive) ourselves, our parents, and our children, as well as the almost unbearable getting-of-wisdom by which we free our beloved dead. The Possibilities is familiar to us, in all its wit and intelligence, because we know the characters. We are the characters.

Susanna Moore, author of The Life of Objects

In smooth, nuanced prose, Kaui Hart Hemmings deftly captures the emotional hurdles that pin our day-to-day lives to the map of the universe. The Possibilities is a heartrending story of grief, resilience, and ultimately joy in all the tumult that loving other people inevitably demands. A soulful gem of a novel that reminds us to treasure every fleeting, crystalline moment of family love and our imperfect lives.

Kaui Hart Hemmings is the author of the novel, The Descendants, which was made into a major motion picture, and the critically acclaimed short-story collection House of Thieves. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope, Best American Voices 2006, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004. Hemmings grew up in Hawaii and lives with her husband and daughter in San Francisco.

‘Like the wonderful Anne Tyler, Hemmings writes witty, immersive, immensely readable and deeply humane fiction about entirely believable characters’ Metro 
 
Sarah St. John is reeling. Her twenty-two year old son, Cully, has been killed in an avalanche and, much as she'd like to be left alone to grieve quietly, no one will let her. Her father, a retired shopping channel addict has moved into her basement. Her best friend, a divorcee who always manages to say the wrong thing, has become something of a life-coach. And then there’s Cully’s father, whose sudden re-emergence in Sarah’s life stirs a cauldron of emotions. Just as Sarah is ready to face the world, a girl called Kit appears on her doorstep. And she’s got a secret that will change all their lives forever.

Kaui Hart Hemmings

Shockingly irreverent and funny while exerting that all-important emotional tug... A well-plotted, unexpectedly twisting saga

Kaui Hart Hemmings' assured touch and her fine grasp of the absurd ensures that this novel steers a deliciously scenic route between heartbreak and hilarity

Gripping and funny... A brave and intelligent novel

An assured and subtle writer. The islands rise lush and untamed in the background

Utterly original and absolutely compelling... a fantastic first novel

A panoramic tragicomedy about the transience of life...a sensitive, unsentimental vision that is often peppered with comic barbs...treads the fragile thread between heartbreak and humour, announcing Kaui Hart Hemmings as a writer of prodigious gifts

Full of dark humour and astute observations, this is a deftly written rumination on the meaning of family and ancestry

A darkly funny debut... a sharp story of emotional and sexual awakening in idyllic Hawaii

The subject matter may be heated but Hemmings avoids schmaltz at every turn. Even Joanie's death-bed scene is flooded with well-judged comedy. An engaging comic debut about a middle-aged man's attempts to navigate a far from scenic route home

Hemmings' quirkily assured touch, her grasp of the absurd and the lush Hawaiian setting ensures this novel's balance between heartbreak and hilarity

Terrific debut… a closely observed study of human frailty

An unsentimental tragicomedy, whose somewhat hopeless male protagonist is so believable that it's a surprise to discover his creator is young, female and only on her first novel

A descendant of one of Hawaii's largest landowners, Matt King finds his luck changed when his fun-loving, filghty wife Joanie falls into a coma, victim of a boating accident. Matt is left in sole charge of his two daughters, teenage ex-model and recovering drug addict Alex, and Scottie, a feisty ten-year-old. 
 
And then Matt discovers Joanie has been having an affair. Deciding to seek out Joanie's lover so that he too has a chance to say his goodbyes, Matt takes to the road with his daughters on a memorable journey of painful revelations and unexpected humour...

Kaui Hart Hemmings

Praise for The Descendants

Shockingly irreverent and funny while exerting that all-important emotional tug... A well-plotted, unexpectedly twisting saga

Kaui Hart Hemmings' assured touch and her fine grasp of the absurd ensures that this novel steers a deliciously scenic route between heartbreak and hilarity

Gripping and funny... A brave and intelligent novel

Shockingly irreverent and funny while exerting that all-important emotional tug... A well-plotted, unexpectedly twisting saga

Kaui Hart Hemmings' assured touch and her fine grasp of the absurd ensures that this novel steers a deliciously scenic route between heartbreak and hilarity

Gripping and funny... A brave and intelligent novel

Shockingly irreverent and funny while exerting that all-important emotional tug... A well-plotted, unexpectedly twisting saga

Kaui Hart Hemmings' assured touch and her fine grasp of the absurd ensures that this novel steers a deliciously scenic route between heartbreak and hilarity

Gripping and funny... A brave and intelligent novel

Books by Kaui Hart Hemmings

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