From the Booker-shortlisted author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour comes a hilarious novel about fathers sons thwarted dreams and confronting the reality of who we really are'This is a fine American novel about family love and a decent but flawed man trying to be better. In dark times like these I can't recommend this book too highly. It's strong' Stephen King on Twitter___________________________________Charlie Barnes is a mid-century man devoted to his newspaper and his landline. But Charlie is about to get dragged into our troubled age by his storyteller son who has a different idea of him than he has of himself. Then there are his other children his ex-wives present wife business clients friends and acquaintances all of whom have their competing opinions of Charlie. He certainly seems simple enough: he's a striver a romantic and a thoroughgoing capitalist. But suddenly blindsided by the Great Recession and a dose of bad news he might have to rethink his life from top to bottom and on short notice. What makes a man real? What makes him good? And how does the story we tell about ourselves line up with the lives that we actually live?___________________________________'Funny moving and formally a work of genius A Calling for Charlie Barnes is quite literally the book Joshua Ferris was born to write' Garth Risk Hallberg author of City on Fire'Dazzling. Mind-blowing. About as much fun as you can have without risking arrest' Richard Russo author of Empire Falls'Wonderful: fast and deep urgent and brilliant. A hilarious intimate and scathing takedown of so many American vanities' Dana Spiotta author of Stone Arabia. Language: English