Bret Anthony Johnston - Author

Corpus Christi

FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS ('excellent' The Sunday Times - 'beautiful' Observer) Corpus Christi is 'A GORGEOUS, ACCOMPLISHED DEBUT' DAVID MITCHELL (Independent Books of the Year) In Corpus Christi, Texas - a town often hit by hurricanes - parents, children, and lovers come together and fall apart, bonded and battered by memories of loss that they feel as acutely as physical pain. A car accident joins strangers linked by an intimate knowledge of madness. A teenage boy remembers his father's act of sudden and self-righteous violence. A 'hurricane party' reunites a couple whom tragedy parted. And, in an unforgettable three-story cycle, an illness heals a man's relationship with his mother and reveals the odd, shifting fidelity of truth to love. Told in fresh, lyrical voices and taut, inventive styles, these narratives explore the complex volatility of love and intimacy, sorrow and renewal. Writing with tough humor, deep humanity, and a keen eye for the natural environment, Bret Anthony Johnston creates a world where cataclysmic events cut people loose from their 'regular lives, floating and spiraling away from where we had been the day before.' --- The extraordinarily ambitious debut of one of contemporary American most exquisitely talented voices, now available from Two Roads in a new paperback edition.

Remember Me Like This

ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S BEST HOLIDAY READS 2014 - BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME 'I love this novel' John Irving - 'Excellent' Sunday Times - 'enthralling' New York Times A powerful and affecting novel of a family which has moved readers everywhere What happens to a family when a lost child returns? In the four years since Justin's abduction his family has become a group of separate units, each nursing their pain and guilt. Now, when they should be at their happiest, how can they forgive each other and become a family again? A gripping literary novel with the pace of a thriller, Remember Me Like This introduces Bret Anthony Johnston as a gifted storyteller. With his sophisticated and emotionally taut plot Johnston reveals how only in caring for each other, can we save ourselves.

Remember Me Like This

ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S BEST HOLIDAY READS 2014 - BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME 'I love this novel' John Irving - 'Excellent' Sunday Times - 'enthralling' New York Times A powerful and affecting novel of a family which has moved readers everywhere What happens to a family when a lost child returns? In the four years since Justin's abduction his family has become a group of separate units, each nursing their pain and guilt. Now, when they should be at their happiest, how can they forgive each other and become a family again? A gripping literary novel with the pace of a thriller, Remember Me Like This introduces Bret Anthony Johnston as a gifted storyteller. With his sophisticated and emotionally taut plot Johnston reveals how only in caring for each other, can we save ourselves.

Corpus Christi

FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS ('excellent' The Sunday Times - 'beautiful' Observer) Corpus Christi is 'A GORGEOUS, ACCOMPLISHED DEBUT' DAVID MITCHELL (Independent Books of the Year) In Corpus Christi, Texas - a town often hit by hurricanes - parents, children, and lovers come together and fall apart, bonded and battered by memories of loss that they feel as acutely as physical pain. A car accident joins strangers linked by an intimate knowledge of madness. A teenage boy remembers his father's act of sudden and self-righteous violence. A 'hurricane party' reunites a couple whom tragedy parted. And, in an unforgettable three-story cycle, an illness heals a man's relationship with his mother and reveals the odd, shifting fidelity of truth to love. Told in fresh, lyrical voices and taut, inventive styles, these narratives explore the complex volatility of love and intimacy, sorrow and renewal. Writing with tough humor, deep humanity, and a keen eye for the natural environment, Bret Anthony Johnston creates a world where cataclysmic events cut people loose from their 'regular lives, floating and spiraling away from where we had been the day before.' --- The extraordinarily ambitious debut of one of contemporary American most exquisitely talented voices, now available from Two Roads in a new paperback edition.

Remember Me Like This

'I love this novel' John Irving - 'Excellent' Sunday Times - 'enthralling' New York Times A powerful and affecting novel of a family which has moved readers everywhere. What happens to a family when a lost child returns? In the four years since Justin's abduction his family has become a group of separate units, each nursing their pain and guilt. Now, when they should be at their happiest, how can they forgive each other and become a family again? A gripping literary novel with the pace of a thriller, Remember Me Like This introduces Bret Anthony Johnston as a gifted storyteller. With his sophisticated and emotionally taut plot Johnston reveals how only in caring for each other, can we save ourselves.

Remember Me Like This

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review *; Esquire *; BookPageA gripping novel with the pace of a thriller but the nuanced characterization and deep empathy of some of the literary canon's most beloved novels, Remember Me Like This introduces Bret Anthony Johnston as one of the most gifted storytellers writing today. With his sophisticated and emotionally taut plot and his shimmering prose, Johnston reveals that only in caring for one another can we save ourselves. Four years have passed since Justin Campbell's disappearance, a tragedy that rocked the small town of Southport, Texas. Did he run away? Was he kidnapped? Did he drown in the bay? As the Campbells search for answers, they struggle to hold what's left of their family together. Then, one afternoon, the impossible happens. The police call to report that Justin has been found only miles away, in the neighboring town, and, most important, he appears to be fine. Though the reunion is a miracle, Justin's homecoming exposes the deep rifts that have diminished his family, the wounds they all carry that may never fully heal. Trying to return to normal, his parents do their best to ease Justin back into his old life. But as thick summer heat takes hold, violent storms churn in the Gulf and in the Campbells' hearts. When a reversal of fortune lays bare the family's greatest fearsand offers perhaps the only hope for recoveryeach of them must fight to keep the ties that bind them from permanently tearing apart. Praise for Remember Me Like This ';Enthralling . . . [an] exquisitely moral mystery of how we struggle to accept and love the people we call family.'The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice) ';I love this novel.'John Irving ';An achingly beautiful and psychologically insightful portrait of a family . . . [a] fully immersive novel in which the language is luminous and the delivery almost flawless.'The Boston Globe ';Riveting . . . [The novel] flows like it was plotted by Dennis Lehane but feels like it was written by Jonathan Franzen.'Esquire ';Tremendously moving . . . There's real humanity in Johnston's writing, and it's heartening to spend time with these folks as they relearn how to be a family.'Ron Charles, The Washington Post ';Deeply empathetic and masterfully constructed . . . a novel that has both the feel of a great epic and the focused intensity of standing on a highwire.'SalonFrom the Hardcover edition.

Naming The World