The O'Briens

ReviewPraise for The O'Briens“Powerful . . . This is a family possessed of a ‘strange, rough beauty,’ as [a] priest describes them, and it’s this dichotomy that keeps them struggling internally . . . Moments of grace and romance are rocked by cruel words and violence in this epic, a piece of rough beauty itself.” —Publishers Weekly (starred) “Illuminating . . . . An epic along the lines of Middlesex in the way it follows a family through time and examines the results of their actions . . . . A brooding novel, engrossing in its scope and detail, The O’Briens keeps sight of the family’s personal stories amid the larger history of much of the twentieth century.” —Booklist“Behrens’s characters are engaging and the history of the various cities, budding industries, and wars expertly handled.” —Library Journal “Peter Behrens’s family saga The O’Briens (Pantheon) spans the first half of the Canadian twentieth century, finding a parallel epic in an unforgettable narrative of marriage.” —*Vogue.comCanadian Praise for *THE O’BRIENS“A distinctly twentieth-century family epic . . . Pitch-perfect.”—National Post “Impressive in its scope and ambitious in its goals. Some of [the] descriptions are flat-out jaw-dropping . . . In giving his family a past few of them knew existed, Behrens has made The O’Briens unforgettably alive.” —The Globe and Mail “Having read both Buddenbrooks and The O’Briens this summer, I can affirm they are definitely in the same league—great, juicy tales that will make you take a second look at annoying relatives. They are, after all, part of the big picture, otherwise known as history and destiny.”—The Gazette (Montreal) Praise for *The Law of Dreams“Absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written . . . A masterly novel.”—The New York Times Book Review “Stunningly lyric . . . A work of richly emphatic imagination that reminds us once again how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands.”—Los Angeles Times “A novel that animates the past this vibrantly should make volumes of mere history blush. ‘Life burns hot,’ Fergus thinks, and so do these pages.”—The Washington Post Book World “Behrens’s work recalls Liam O’Flaherty’s epic novel Famine; both writers have a stark style admirably suited to conveying the horrors of starvation and despair. But Behrens’s language also has a visceral rhythm, [melding] the humble and the lyrical.” —The New Yorker*About the AuthorPeter Behrens is the author of The Law of Dreams (which received Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and was published around the world to wide acclaim) and Night Driving, a collection of short stories. His stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including The Atlantic and Tin House. Honors he has received include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University’s Creative Writing Program.