The Gossip Columnist's Daughter

De: Peter Orner

Narrado por: Robert Fass

The cold case of a young Hollywood starlet’s death sets a contemporary writer on an epic and comic quest to uncover the truth, and its connection to his own family—a new novel by “a major talent” (New York Times) and “one of the most distinctive voices of his generation” (Granta).

Jed Rosenthal hasn’t published a book in fourteen years, the mother of his child left him in a “trial separation” that has stretched on indefinitely, and he struggles to navigate the daily sorrows of their co-parenting arrangement. But the implosion of Jed’s family is simply a footnote in the larger history of the Rosenthal family’s decline.

Just days after the JFK assassination, Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet was found dead in her Hollywood apartment. The press reported that the 22-year-old was strangled, yet unanswered questions linger to this day. Cookie’s parents—Chicago royalty, Irv and Essee Kupcinet—had been close friends with Jed's grandparents, but in the aftermath of her death, their friendship abruptly and inexplicably ended. Decades later, Jed pores over family stories, newspaper archives, old photos, and crime scene notes, believing that if he can divine the truth of Cookie's death—whether it was suicide, murder, or part of a larger conspiracy—it might shed light on a mystery closer to home.

Spanning seventy plus years, and weaving together family drama and a true-life unsolved case, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter is a singular, wryly comic, and deeply human exploration into friendship and the bonds that sustain us.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Broken families are an Orner specialty...So is artful prose...Playing to his strengths, he weaves old-school boldface-type journalism and the stubborn persistence of family secrets."—Los Angeles Times

"Weaving domestic drama and an unsolved crime with a comic twist, Orner tracks the marital separations, severed friendships, and unexplained death that mark the Rosenthal and Kupcinet families. From Hollywood to Chicago, tragedy reigns, but Jed believes he can unravel the mysteries that plague his family history."—Boston Globe

"A wild ride and an immersive Chicago novel, in which the town threatens to toddle off its axis."—Kirkus Reviews

“A rewarding literary experiment.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Time and time again, Peter Orner has gifted us doors into worlds that remind us, no matter our differences, how connected we are to each other and how much farther we need to traverse to be better. With his first novel in fifteen years, Orner continues to surprise and guide: this is fiction that captures so perfectly a family’s mysteries, secrets, and history; and in doing so, captures the story of our country. It’s also one of the finest stories on the ever-complex topic of friendship—and the importance of friendship—I have ever read. Which is to say: here is a friend for you, when you need it the most."—Paul Yoon, author of The Hive and the Honey

"The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter is a monumental tapestry stitched from history’s scraps: neighborhood rumors, family legends, and unsolved mysteries. It’s a novel about the secrets we keep, the answers we seek, the unfinished business of the pasts we inherit. Peter Orner has already cemented his reputation as one of the great chroniclers of life in Chicago. With The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter he has become one of the great chroniclers of life full stop."—Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

“Masterfully written, funny, often achingly moving, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter confronts us with at least two central questions: how much of our own daily fumblings in life are passed down to us? And how, precisely, does one learn to love and be loved anyway? There’s more here too, of course – the seductive power of celebrity, the ties that should bind but do not – but I’ll let you discover these on your own as you treat yourself to this truly unforgettable novel. If there is a more daring and original narrative voice in contemporary American fiction than Peter Orner’s, then I don’t know whose it is.” —Andre Dubus III, bestselling author of The House of Sand and Fog and Ghost Dogs

A long family story.

A book not really about the gossip columnist. It’s about 3-generations of a family who never understood why a key relationship broke up.

Mishmash of realty and fiction

I read the Chicago Tribune review before purchasing. This was so much less interesting than expected. Disjointed and rather boring.