'A moving portrait of a family united and divided by a tragic loss, a subtle meditation on moral responsibility, and a slyly funny comedy of errors, Century's Son is a heartbreaking, ultimately exhilarating novel by one of America's finest writers.' Tom Perrotta, author of Election 'The texture of this replete portrayal of Middle America and its discontents suggests an inspired collaboration between Anne Tyler and John Cheever.

(Jan.'A moving portrait of a family united and divided by a tragic loss, a subtle meditation on moral responsibility, and a slyly funny comedy of errors, Century's Son is a heartbreaking, ultimately exhilarating novel by one of America's finest writers.'. Most important, the book is charged with insight, resonating with questions about how one leads a moral, fulfilling life and accepts the mystery of love. The dialogue has wit and energy, and the details of farm routine are rendered with impressive authenticity.

Boswell's compassion for his characters, his coherent control of motivation and plot, help him build to a series of tremendously affecting events, followed by Dulcie's quiet epiphany and an unforgettable ending. A fundamentalist Christian couple in the farm community is sketched with as much empathy as Angela's second, philandering husband and Stephen's understanding girlfriend. As Boswell cross-cuts among different events over a 20-year span, he draws a nuanced portrait of decent people striving to connect with each other. She has remarried, and Dulcie is a rebellious, almost dangerously unstable adolescent when Angela returns to the farm for the first time in a decade to leave the fractious 15-year-old with her father. Later, desperate for a life outside the confines of the farm and its small community, Angela left Stephen. The ``Mystery Ride'' (from a Springsteen song) is marriage, and here is ``the almost inexhaustible mystery of love found and lost.'' Brimming with high ideals, Angela and Stephen Landis wed in the '60s and moved to a farm in Iowa, where their daughter Dulcie was born.

The novel reflects Boswell's increasing maturity and wisdom its characters-especially an exasperating teenager-are vivid and fresh, its truths poignant and penetrating. This new work makes a brilliant return to the subject Boswell writes about with distinctive tenderness and humor: a marriage that has fractured, although the love husband and wife once felt for each other endures as a touchstone in their lives.

His next book, The Geography of Desire, was earnest but inchoate with his need to make a statement. Boswell's memorable second novel, Crooked Hearts, about a dsyfunctional family, established his reputation on the literary scene.

Century's Son by Robert Boswell