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Coconut is a love story that weaves intimate life portraits across three generations and four continents.
Mary is a young artist who struggles to build hope out of tragedy. Explorations in mathematics free Henry's mind, but what can free his soul? Catherine looks into the mirror and asks, Who am I? She cannot find her path forward until she first finds the path back to her beginnings. James dreams of building a theory of human culture, but as his dream gets closer, his life veers off course. Calvert is a software architect at the start of his life journey. As the Andes come into view through the airliner windows, he's flooded with that feeling - when you don't know if it's a place you've been or a place you've only heard of.
Across generations and across the globe, the five navigate through peril and heartbreak, beauty and laughter. The family lines meet in New York City and together they find their way. Coconut is a story of identity and the power of love across place and time to unleash the truth within us.
Praise for Coconut:
"What is family-is it shaped through blood, through community, through love? What is the family and parenting we need to feel whole and know ourselves authentically? These are big questions and in Coconut John and Elizabeth Clay have written a searching generational novel that tackles it all with originality and surprise. Most importantly I came to love all the characters that wind through this novel. Somehow each of them broke and healed my heart. A powerful debut."
- Victoria Redel, author of Before Everything
"Coconut makes a deep impression. The story haunts chapter by chapter, following the main characters on a mystery journey. Surging with poetic description, pages sing like Walcott's Omeros and Joyce's Ulysses. The characters stay real, like people we know or people we would like to be. This is a story that will resonate with readers across generations."
- George Klawitter, CSC, author of A Little World Made Cunningly
"Coconut is a meticulously crafted, deeply moving novel that exemplifies the complexities of human experience. The rhythm of the lyrical prose is astounding. It is a nuanced, multigenerational family saga that intertwines lives and memories across time periods and locations. Adoption, especially, with all of its intricate ramifications, is deftly explored. Coconut will satisfy readers who long for real depth. It sent shivers down my spine."
- Mark Katzman, author of M7
A captivating and poignant story that traverses diverse cultures and generations, Coconut seamlessly weaves a narrative of heartbreak and hope. I felt deeply connected to each character, like I was right there with them every step of the way.
- Debbie Yee Lan Wong, author of The Same Sky: A Traveler's Quest for Redemption and Peace
"I've spent my life out there in the real world, living real-life adventures. Coconut is a novel that captures that sense of the real-from childhood dreams to grown-up adversities. And all in beautiful language. If you want to enjoy an engaging well-told story, this is it."
- J. Robert Harris, author of Way Out There: Adventures of a Wilderness Trekker
"A piece of art like that archetypical quilt, that jazz combo, that Minnesota style - fast moving and precise, artistic and scientific, chaotic and weaving strings together, intuitive and cultured, brash and optimistic - written with an American sound that's personal, graceful, sophisticated."
- Stephan Peter, author of Bridging the Gap: Personal Stories of a Trans-Atlantic Civil Society Advocate
