Defenestrate

De: Renée Branum

Narrado por: Zura Johnson

Bloomsbury presents Defenestrate by Renée Branum, read by Zura Johnson.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

An exuberant, wildly inventive debut about a young woman fascinated by her ancestors' legendary "falling curse" and trying to keep her own family from falling apart.

Marta and her twin brother Nick have always been haunted and fascinated by an ancestral legend that holds that members of their family are doomed to various types of falls. And when their own family collapses in the wake of a revelation and a resulting devastating fight with their Catholic mother, the twins move to Prague, the city in which their “falling curse” began. There, Marta and Nick try to forge a new life for themselves. But their ties to the past and each other prove difficult to disentangle, and when they ultimately return to their midwestern home and Nick falls from a balcony himself, Marta is forced to confront the truths they've hidden from each other and themselves.

Ingeniously and unforgettably narrated by Marta as she reflects on all the ways there are to fall—from defenestration in nineteenth century Prague to the pratfalls of her childhood idol Buster Keaton, from falling in love to falling midflight from an airplane—Defenestrate is a deeply original, gorgeous novel about the power of stories and the strange, malleable bonds that hold families together.©2022 Renée Branum (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

Stylish, shimmering . . . In a feat of literary archery, Branum’s lyrical prose hits its mark again and again . . . Evocative passages stud the novel like diamonds. The story cuts back and forth, brimming with suspense. It’s always a joy to see a writer dig confidently into her gifts, as Branum does in Defenestrate. Her characters may fear falling, but this novel soars.

Branum is a taut storyteller who reveals and confides with great skill, in a narrative composed of addictive passages rather than conventional chapters . . . This hypnotic and philosophical debut considers the act of defenestration as something more profound than an accident or a mere unfortunate end. Through the lens of memory, Branum refracts the layers of truth, tragedy and faith that break a cycle of lives most at home in free fall.

Sparkling . . . an original and engaging novel from a fresh new voice.

A beautifully structured work about ancestry, siblinghood, vulnerability and fear . . . Branum confronts existential questions with bold, clean prose that swings between gravity and deflection.

Excellent . . . A serious story, luminously told.

Quirky and poignant . . . the collage of striking scenes and reflections offers frequent delights. Readers willing to go out on a limb will find much to savor.

Written in sweeping prose rife with allegory (many unbelievable real-life falls told here), Branum's first novel is an honest, beautiful tale of fierce sibling love.

Lyrical and lovely and slyly funny, yet deceptively propulsive. One to stay up all night reading and immediately begin again.

Odd, lyrical and gorgeous . . . Evocative of Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists, Branum’s novel is a magical realist family fable, an allegory about the heaviness of history and the lightness of dropping.

Defenestrate is impressively powerful. On page after page, Renée Branum manages to entwine the tall tales that shape all families with the real-world fallout those tales can cause. She also does a masterful job of rendering the sensation of falling, of spiraling in the air. The effect, like the novel itself, is spellbinding.

Gorgeously written and imaginative, Defenestrate is a beautiful novel about the family stories we tell and how they echo on through generations. Rich and intimate, this novel will stay with me.

Renée Branum writes with exceptional wisdom and tenderness about inheritance, obsession, and the power of storytelling as a means of understanding who we are. As family secrets are revealed, Defenestrate builds to a symphonic, exhilarating end that embraces uncertainty alongside the miracle of surviving the greatest of falls.

Worth the long fall down… seriously

Give the book your time and you will receive stories to enjoy and marvel, but also work through a little breaking of bone, and heart.

I will read this again!

This was a story full of beautiful metaphors, beautifully written; also wonderfully read and performed. Simultaneously brutal, and tender, and vulnerable. Highly recommend!

Fall, in love.

I don’t know that I would have found this book or picked it out on my own. But I decided to give it a try after a recommendation and have zero regrets. A beautiful story that is equal parts hope and despair, falling and lifting up. Zura Johnson lifts this story off the page so exquisitely. Her tone and focus of feeling allowing you to envision each tale told by the narrator as you become deeply invested in the survival of the stories she weaves.

Quit about halfway in

This never grabbed me. I gave it several hours, but never was anxious to hear more. So I cut my losses. Maybe just not for me?