Description

The Big Guy loves his family, money and democracy. Undone by the results of the 2008 Presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of America. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, the Big Guy also faces turbulence within his family and must take responsibility for his past actions. For his wife and daughter are having their own awakenings: self-denying Charlotte enters rehab, and eighteen year old Megan, who has voted for the first time, explores a political future that deviates from her father’s ideology, while delving into deeply buried family secrets.

Dark, funny and prescient, The Unfolding explores the implosion of the dream and how we arrived in today’s divided world.

Publisher Review

I am a devoted Homes fan: her books are sometimes shocking, always beguiling -- Maggie O'Farrell * US Elle * The best book she's published: for her to get into the shoes of its main character was a remarkable act of sympathetic imagination -- Bret Easton Ellis * Observer * A terrific black comedy, written almost entirely in pitch-perfect dialogue, that feels terrifyingly close to the unfunny truth -- Salman Rushdie Reads like an episode of The West Wing co-scripted by Don DeLillo * Guardian * Homes specialises in the insecurities, deceits and emotional desolation of America's elite... hilarious * Sunday Times * Homes is a funny, funny writer... Funny, of course, until it's terrifying * Spectator * From her first book onward, A. M. Holmes has been challenging us to look at fiction, the world, and one another as we haven't done-because we haven't had the nerve, the eyes, the dire and dispassionate imagination. Gripping, sad, funny, by turns aching and antic and, as always, exceedingly well-observed and written, The Unfolding opens up another one of her jagged windows, at times indistinguishable from a crack, in the world that is always unfolding, and always vanishing, around us -- Michael Chabon Compelling, funny, horrifying, and tremendously astute, this novel cuts right to the bone -- Phil Klay, author of Missionaries How can a book be hilarious and chilling at the same time? A.M. Homes's The Unfolding is a modern masterpiece, a scary immersion deep into the heart of American power -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends A timely discourse on the fracturing of the US democracy ... [with] superbly calibrated dialogue * Mail on Sunday * A.M. Homes has perfectly captured an America as it lurches toward freak-out, and a family as it shreds the lies it's been living by... Hilarious and shocking and heartbreaking and just a little bit deranged -- Nathan Hill, author of The Nix The Unfolding is Swiftian in its energy and bite, yet brimful of compassion and emotion. The entwining of the personal and the political feels as if it's born again to a sparkling new life. How does she do it? * Neel Mukherjee * Darkly comic * i Paper * A book that packs in history lessons, political intrigue, family drama and astute social commentary. In short, a study of America as a country in free fall by a writer who knows exactly where it's at * Irish Independent * Sharply observed, Homes' novel is also very funny, making you wince through the laughter in the way that successful satire does... riveting -- Susan Osborne * A Life in Books * The Unfolding powerfully captures something of how nuance and complexity are all too often pushed aside by those who talk the loudest in a fractiously partisan political landscape * TLS * The Unfolding proceeds at a cracking pace... It is both social satire and political satire with a touching coming-of-age story at its core. AM Homes is both funny and sharp, and her prose buzzes with energy * Irish Examiner * [A] scorching, super sharp novel * Sainsbury's Magazine *