Little Disasters, Randall Klein
Little Disasters, Randall Klein
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Little Disasters

Author: Randall Klein

Narrator: Kirby Heyborne, Mark Deakins

Unabridged: 13 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/22/2018


Synopsis

A gripping novel about two young married couples--expectant parents and new friends--whose lives collide in a pile-up of deceits and indiscretions

It was the exhilaration of new parenthood that first united Michael and Paul, outside the Brooklyn hospital where their wives, Rebecca and Jenny, had exiled them from the delivery room. For Paul, though, tragedy swiftly followed that euphoria. Hoping to speed his and Jenny's recovery, he turns to Michael for a favor, unwittingly kindling the spark of connection between these couples into the affair that will blow them apart.

One year later, on the same morning that the catastrophes of their personal lives come to an explosive head, a mysterious crisis in Midtown Manhattan all but shuts down the city, leaving both men stranded--Michael at the northernmost tip of the island and Paul in a dark subway tunnel under the East River. Each must make the arduous trek home through record-breaking heat, nervously eyeing the thin plume of smoke above the skyline, though it's their private turmoils that loom largest. Told in the alternating voices of these charismatic but deeply flawed men, Little Disasters deftly cuts between the suspense of the citywide disaster and the history of secrets, lies, and losses that has brought these four intertwined lives to the brink. Smart, unsparing, and bitingly funny, Randall Klein's debut is an engrossing story of the bonds of love and family--and our unending urges to test them, even when we need them most.

About The Author

Randall Klein is a writer and book editor living in Charlottesville, Virginia. Little Disasters is his first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Novel Visits on May 22, 2018

Original Source: Novel Visits - [URL not allowed]-disast... {My Thoughts} What Worked For Me A Story Meeting in the Middle – Randall Klein’s debut novel tells the story of two men who first meet while their wives are in labor at the same hospital. Soon, the two families’ lives are hopeless......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on August 19, 2018

This novel explores the tragedy that connects two couples and the ultimate implosion of their relationship. Initially, two couples meet at the hospital where they are having their babies. One of them has a healthy little boy but the other baby is stillborn. Told in the voices of the husbands, this b......more

Goodreads review by Mary on July 21, 2018

The first line of Randall Klein’s smashing debut novel, “Little Disasters”, is: “Jenny Sayles and I are a terrible idea.” So says Michael Gould, one of our first-person, alternating narrators. The other narrator, Paul Fenniger, is also connected to Jenny. We quickly learn that Michael and Paul also......more

Goodreads review by Darla on May 18, 2018

I received a digital ARC of this book from Viking and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This book is getting four stars from me because of the suspense created by the phantom disaster shooting a plume of smoke into the sky in Manhattan. I do love a book set in NYC. Our two main characters--......more


Quotes

“Klein has deftly crafted a domestic drama twisted around an intriguing mystery and the resulting novel is fun to read while emotionally impactful.” —Chicago Review of Books

“With refreshingly authentic humor and jagged characters, this debut depicts marriage at its greediest, and by the end, readers may find themselves torn over which relationships to root for.” Associated Press

"Randall Klein's smart, ferocious, propulsive debut is the kind of book I've been waiting for—it's a thoughtful literary love story, both emotionally resonant and highly entertaining." —J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

“Gripping pacing, matrimonial sabotage and emotional salvation collide in this heat wave of a novel about good Brooklynites gone bad.” —Courtney Maum, author of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

“Randall Klein turns up the heat of suspense degree by degree in his haunting novel of lives unraveling. Little Disasters is an enthralling, beautifully written debut—nothing ‘little’ about it.” —Katherine Heiny, author of Standard Deviation and Single, Carefree, Mellow

"Twisting and turning on every page, LITTLE DISASTERS by Randall Klein pulls readers deep into the lives of two Brooklyn couples whose fates are entwined one night outside of a hospital delivery room. Expertly written and exciting, this novel explores what it means to face great loss-- and how to be even greater, as a parent, a partner, and a friend." —Kristopher Jansma, author of Why We Came to the City and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards

“Infidelity and grief are strange yet entirely persuasive bedfellows in Little Disasters. With masterly command of two perspectives and two timelines, not to mention a dry wit and a sharpshooter’s eye for bourgeois Brooklyn detail, Randall Klein elegantly maps the mundane plains of domesticity, the fragile stability we enjoy until catastrophe upends it, and the escape tunnels people dig that often turn out to be deeper holes.” —Teddy Wayne, author of Loner and The Love Song of Jonny Valentine
 
“The quintessential subway read: that book that makes you miss your stop because you’re so caught up with the characters. Armed with an unflinching eye, Klein gives us the interior lives of two men as they grapple with fatherhood, infidelity, and the consequences of adult decisions. Riveting, funny, and honest.” —Eddie Joyce, author of Small Mercies

"A twisted love letter to New York City.” Kirkus Reviews

“Sharply observant . . . Klein is at his best making notes on the nuances of behavior in this particular tribe of Brooklynites advancing warily into maturity, and in tracking unsentimentally the progress of an affair . . . A well-composed chamber piece.” Publishers Weekly

"Using alternating first-person narration and an oscillating time line, [Klein] ratchets up the tension and cleverly exposes the gap between reality and perception." Library Journal