From the best-selling author Joe Meno, a moving novel about the
impossibility of fate and family
"Joe Meno is one of those Chicago writers floating around so long that
we take his sturdiness for granted. His latest, though, Book of
Extraordinary Tragedies, (Sept. 6) the tale of Evergreen Park musical
prodigies who reunite after ages of failure and loss, is a career best,
a reminder of how unusually hopeful and buoyant Meno has remained all
this time. It's a charmer and a breakthrough."
--Chicago Tribune, Fall Books Preview
"As in all his tender and edgy fiction, Meno's poetic prose is infused
with sweet compassion and sharp protest as he marvels over 'the
beautiful failure of all human beings struggling against their own
glorious mistakes' while, somehow, finding a way forward."
--Booklist, starred review
Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies,
once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing
up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were
inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy
at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions.
Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous
jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of
ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, an odd
mother, an absent father, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness
for catastrophes, the two siblings have all but given up.
But when an illness forces Isobel and her three-year-old daughter to
move back into the family home, Aleks becomes deeply involved in the
endless challenges that surround his relatives. Once Isobel begins
playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and
wonder in the lives of his extraordinarily complicated family.
Told in Aleks's exuberant voice, and full of as much comedy as tragedy,
this entertaining novel asks, Is it ever truly possible to separate our
fates from those we've come to love?
