' Perfect touches on class, mental illness, and the ways a psyche is formed or broken. As Joyce probes the souls of Diana, Byron and Jim, she reveals-slowly and deliberately, as if peeling back a delicate onion skin-the connection between the two stories, creating a poignant, searching tale.' - O: The Oprah Magazine Joyce does an inviting job of setting up these mysterious circumstances, and of drawing Byron's magical closeness with Diana.' -Janet Maslin, The New York Times Brimming with love, forgiveness, and redemption, Perfect will cement Rachel Joyce's reputation as one of fiction's brightest talents. As she did in her debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce has imagined bewitching characters who find their ordinary lives unexpectedly thrown into chaos, who learn that there are times when children must become parents to their parents, and who discover that in confronting the hard truths about their pasts, they will forge unexpected relationships that have profound and surprising impacts. Unable to trust his parents, he confides in his best friend, James, and together they concoct a plan. What happened and who is to blame? Over the days and weeks that follow, Byron's perfect world is shattered. While his mother seems not to have noticed, eleven-year-old Byron understands that from now on nothing can be the same. In one terrible moment, something happens, something completely unexpected and at odds with life as Byron understands it. But when the three of them leave home, driving into a dense summer fog, the morning takes an unmistakable turn.

Byron Hemmings wakes to a morning that looks like any other: his school uniform draped over his wooden desk chair, his sister arguing over the breakfast cereal, the click of his mother's heels as she crosses the kitchen. About the Book Includes a reader's guide and an excerpt from The music shop.īook Synopsis A spellbinding novel that will resonate with readers of Mark Haddon, Louise Erdrich, and John Irving, Perfect tells the story of a young boy who is thrown into the murky, difficult realities of the adult world with far-reaching consequences.

Perfect book rachel joyce