New Releases by Koren Zailckas

By the New York Times bestselling author of Mother, Mother and Smashed comes a propulsive new thriller: the story of a desperate and devious woman who will do anything to give her family a better life Gracie Mueller is a proud mother of two and devoted wife, living with her husband Randy in upstate New York. Her life is complicated by the usual tedium and stressors—young children, marriage, money—and she’s settled down comfortably enough. But when Randy’s failing career as a real estate agent makes finances tight, their home goes into foreclosure, and Gracie feels she has no choice but to return to the creatively illegal and high-stakes lifestyle of her past in order to keep all that she’s worked so hard to have. Gracie, underneath all that’s marked her life as average, has a lot to hide about where she’s from, who she is, and who she’s been. And when things inevitably begin to spin out of her control, more questions about the truth of her past are raised, including all the ones she never meant to, or even knew to, ask. Written with the style, energy, and penetrating insight that made her memoir Smashed a phenomenon, Koren Zailckas''s next novel confirms her growing reputation as a psychological novelist that can stand up to the best of them.

From the Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of The Girls Who Disappeared One lied. One died.

Trois enfants, une belle maison, un couple uni : bienvenue chez les Hurst. Pourtant, sous le vernis de la famille idéale se cachent de profondes ténèbres... Un roman psychologique furieusement prenant, impressionnant de mordant et de crédibilité. Qu''est-ce qui a conduit Violet Hurst, seize ans, en hôpital psychiatrique ? Qu''est-ce qui l''a poussée à attaquer Will, son petit frère autiste, à coups de couteau ? Un de ces accès de colère dont elle est devenue coutumière ? Ou, comme le suggère sa mère, Josephine, un coup de folie ? Dangereuse pour elle et pour les autres, mise à l''écart de sa famille, la jeune fille réfléchit, ressasse, cherche l''origine de sa détresse psychologique, de sa récente addiction au LSD, de ses tendances à l''autodestruction. Tente de comprendre ce qui pousse son père à se noyer dans le travail, dans l''alcool ; ce qui brise chaque jour un peu plus la fragile confiance en soi de Will ; ce qui a poussé sa sœur aînée Rose à fuir le domicile familial un an plus tôt sans laisser d''adresse. Et si la raison était à chercher du côté de Josephine ? Entre Violet et sa mère, le combat s''annonce dantesque. Le prix à payer pour trouver enfin la vérité...

Het gezin van Josephine Hurst draait op rolletjes. Met twee mooie dochters, een intelligente zoon en een goedverdienende echtgenoot lijkt haar leven perfect. Ze heeft alles wat haar hartje begeert. Wanneer haar oudste dochter Rose wegloopt met een onbekend vriendje, verstevigt Josephine de greep op haar gezin en transformeert ze haar onberispelijke huis in een donkere gevangenis. Jongste dochter Violet wordt opgenomen in een inrichting en stevige medicatie moet het autisme van zoon Will beperken. Het mooie plaatje wordt slechts met moeite bij elkaar gehouden en wanneer na een gewelddadig incident Jeugdzorg het gezin bezoekt, dreigt de monsterlijke waarheid over Josephine zelf aan het licht te komen. Moeder, moeder is een indringende en intelligente thriller over de duistere kant van moederliefde. Koren Zailckas (Saoedi-Arabië, 1980) schreef eerder een veelbesproken autobiografische roman over haar disfunctionele jeugd. Ze woont met haar familie in de omgeving van New York.

An electrifying debut novel about what happens when the one who should love you the most becomes your worst enemy. Sure to appeal to fans of GONE GIRL and WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

FREE SAMPLER. An electrifying debut novel about what happens when the one who should love you the most becomes your worst enemy. Sure to appeal to fans of GONE GIRL, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN and ROOM

A blisteringly honest chronicle of the consequences of anger displaced and the balm of anger discovered by the author of "Smashed."

Garnering a vast amount of attention from young people and parents, and from book buyers across the country, Smashed became a media sensation and a New York Times bestseller. Eye-opening and utterly gripping, Koren Zailckas’s story is that of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics—yet—but who routinely use booze as a shortcut to courage and a stand-in for good judgment. With one stiff sip of Southern Comfort at the age of fourteen, Zailckas is initiated into the world of drinking. From then on, she will drink faithfully, fanatically. In high school, her experimentation will lead to a stomach pumping. In college, her excess will give way to a pattern of self-poisoning that will grow more destructive each year. At age twenty-two, Zailckas will wake up in an unfamiliar apartment in New York City, elbow her friend who is passed out next to her, and ask, "Where are we?" Smashed is a sober look at how she got there and, after years of blackouts and smashups, what it took for her to realize she had to stop drinking. Smashed is an astonishing literary debut destined to become a classic.