Goodbye Lemon

by Adam Davies

Genres: Coming of Age; Family Life; Literary Fiction

Synopsis

Finally, after fifteen years, Jack Tennant is going home. Against his better judgment, he has succumbed to his mother’s guilt-laden pleas that he see his estranged father, who suffers from “locked-in syndrome,” a condition that leaves him fully intact mentally but unable to speak or move, save for blinking his eye. Jack’s do-gooder girlfriend believes that this trip is a chance for Jack to achieve peace with his family. But Jack’s no fool: He knows better—and he knows there’s a lot his girlfriend doesn’t realize about the Tennant family. She doesn’t know about Jack’s alcoholic brother, Pressman. And she doesn’t know the truth about his brother Dex, who drowned when Jack was very young—and about whom his parents have never said a word.
 
With his family teetering on the brink, Jack finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having to make a decision he’s avoided for years. Should he walk away from his past and leave his crazy family to solve their problems without him? Or should he try to mend fences that have been broken for as long as he can remember?
 
Jack has a lot of choices to make—and fast. If he doesn’t, he runs the risk of losing everything, including the woman he loves.
 
“Adam Davies has a delicious command of the English language.”—St. Petersburg Times

Release date: August 1, 2006

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Print pages: 304