The Resolutions, Brady Hammes
The Resolutions, Brady Hammes
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

The Resolutions

Author: Brady Hammes

Narrator: Rebecca Lowman

Unabridged: 10 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/05/2020


Synopsis

Three accomplished, globe trotting siblings in crisis take refuge in the last place they would ever expect—back home in Chicago, with one another—in this razor-sharp debut for readers of The Nest, Commonwealth, and Imagine Me Gone

“A vivid literary thrill ride . . . Take the journey. The pages will fly by.”—Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook
 
The three Brennan siblings are well on their way in the world. Samantha, the youngest, is a ballerina who recently joined the ranks of a Russian dance company; her brother Jonah is a grad student studying elephants in the rainforest of Gabon; and the eldest, Gavin, has stayed closer to home, living in Los Angeles and acting in a television series.
 
But as the holidays draw near, all three find themselves in profoundly troubling, though distinctly different, predicaments. Samantha is losing the battle to keep her drug addiction from ruining her career; Jonah, in his attempts to protect his elephants, gets in way too deep with a gang of ivory poachers; and Gavin’s TV show is canceled the same day his girlfriend moves out.
 
With their lives run aground, they reunite in their parents’ home for the holidays, where they discover that the bonds between siblings are unshakable. But with their personal problems threatening to derail their nascent careers and possibly their very survival, the three embark on a trip to West Africa in a perilous attempt to right their crooked paths.
 
The Resolutions is a contemporary look at three young people in the defining moments of their lives, by a talented author just getting started on a promising literary career.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on May 08, 2020

The Resolutions is the story of three siblings. Sam is a dancer who experiences a tragic injury. She is scouted by a big deal opportunity for ballerinas in Russia, but instead, Sam finds herself addicted to heroin and shut off from everyone she loves. Sam’s brother, Jonah, lives and works in Gabon mo......more

Goodreads review by Laura • lauralovestoread on May 06, 2020

3.5 stars! The Resolutions is an emotional debut that explores the dynamics of the strained relationships between three siblings. I loved the focus on each sibling as they come to a crossroad in their professional life. While I’m a sucker for a book with family dysfunction, it goes much deeper than th......more

Goodreads review by Jordan (Jordy’s Book Club) on July 09, 2020

QUICK TAKE: you had me at multigenerational family drama. you lost me at a poaching subplot that involved mutilating elephants. Totally took me out of it. Also, the siblings never quite clicked for me (probably because they spend most of the book in different countries), and the strange drug rehab j......more

Goodreads review by Lolly K Dandeneau on March 09, 2020

via my blog: [URL not allowed] "The architecture of her life began to crumble." In The Resolutions by Brady Hammes, the architecture of all three siblings lives (Sam, Jonah and Gavin) have begun to crumble. Sam was so full of promise, a talented, skilled ballerina before an injury......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on May 03, 2020

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Brady Hammes for the opportunity to read his debut fiction - 4 stars for this sibling dynamic story. Three siblings - Gavin, Jonah and Samantha - are all talented in different ways and have been living very different lives. Gavin, a struggling actor, ha......more


Quotes

“A vivid literary thrill ride that adroitly connects D-list Hollywood, Russian ballet, Gabonese elephant conservation, Christmas, drug addiction, and adult siblinghood’s awkward first steps . . . Take the journey. The pages will fly by.”—Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and The Reason You’re Alive
 
“This smartly written tale of three dysfunctional siblings in trouble is fast-paced, witty, and engaging—full of wry wit and insight into the bonds between brothers and sisters. Brady Hammes is an exciting new talent.”—Dan Chaon, New York Times bestselling author of Ill Will
 
The Resolutions is touching and thrilling in the most unexpected ways as two brothers, one an out-of-work actor, the other a research scientist in Africa, different as Cain and Abel, join forces to save their sister, a ballerina whose addiction to heroin is killing her. Taking you from a Russian dance campus to the poacher-riddled thick of Gabon, The Resolutions will have you sitting on the edge of your seat, wanting to call your family to say you love them. And to tell them you know exactly what they should read next.”—Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of At the Water’s Edge
 
“A harrowing tale of three far-flung siblings in crisis, The Resolutions is ultimately a sustained celebration of family in a chaotic world. With assured prose and compassion, Brady Hammes has crafted a debut as wise as it is engaging.”—Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek
 
“Brady Hammes makes a wildly diverse trio of siblings utterly convincing and their story utterly absorbing. The Resolutions is an imaginative and engrossing novel from a splendid new writer.”—Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Perfume River and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“Hammes gives readers three sympathetic, compelling characters trying to find themselves as they grapple with adulthood and the reality of not having accomplished as much as they’d planned. Lovers of character-driven fiction are in for a treat with this debut, which invites them to care about the Brennan siblings and to fully invest in their individual and shared stories, which intertwine in surprising ways.”—Booklist
 
“[An] entertaining debut . . . Hammes brings his three fractious main characters to riotous life and turns their reunion into a life-changing journey. . . .This reads like a clever mash-up of Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You, Romain Gary’s The Roots of Heaven, and Paddy Chayefsky’s Altered States, and delivers thrills while finding empathy for the cast’s troubled souls.”Publishers Weekly