Long Island Compromise

'Is this book as good [as Fleishman]? It's better' THE NEW YORK TIMES

'Might be a masterpiece' HUGH LAURIE

'The best book I've read this year' HARLAN COBEN

'Very, very good' ELIZABETH DAY

'The book of the summer, nay, the year' DAVID SEDARIS

'This book is DYNAMITE. Inhaled it in two sittings' CAITLIN MORAN

'Shocking, tender, profound and delicious' EMILY MAITLIS

'Lavishly comic' THE TIMES

'A lip-smacking tale' GUARDIAN

'Elegant and devastating' FINANCIAL TIMES

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble comes a darkly exhilarating novel about an American family and its inheritance - the safety and wealth that they fought for, and the precarity of their survival that is their legacy.

In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalised, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Miraculously, Carl, his wife and his three kids are left to move on with their lives, and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream.

But nearly forty years later, when Carl's mother dies, the trauma that has been bubbling beneath the Fletchers' lives all this time surfaces at last. It becomes apparent that Carl has been quietly pursuing closure to the kidnapping for all these years, and his wife and children must face that the money that they believed bought them safety was actually never capable of doing any such thing.

Long Island Compromise spans generations, winding through decades of history all the way through to the wild present, dealing along the way with all the mainstays of American Jewish life and the timeless questions about wealth, trauma, and the American soul.

MORE PRAISE FOR LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE:

'The status book you'll want to be seen with' STYLIST

'[A] scabrous satire' THE NEW YORKER

'This author's talents are boundless' LA TIMES

'Substantive and profound' CATHY RENTZENBRINK

'Greatness so often comes at the expense of what is enjoyable. Long Island Compromise is both, and then some' IPAPER

'Exuberant and absorbing' ATLANTIC

PRAISE FOR FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE:

'There is no one that this book isn't for . . . Pure brilliance' INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES

'Could be one of the books of my entire lifetime. I've never felt so seen' GRACE DENT, GUARDIAN

'Sharp and wicked, insightful and funny, and then suddenly so touching' DAVID NICHOL

Not gonna sugarcoat this: Long Island Compromise is the best book I've read this year. You do not want to miss it -- Harlan Coben
I'm no judge -- of anything at all -- but I think Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise might be a masterpiece -- Hugh Laurie
Very, very good. Dare I say . . . I liked it even more than Fleishman -- Elizabeth Day
An ambitious, funny family drama . . . Lavishly comic -- Susie Goldsbrough The Times
Elegant and devastating . . . A rich, stylish, moving and funny novel . . . Every reader will find something here that they can recognise, that will resonate and endure -- Erica Wagner Financial Times
[A] scabrous satire of the super-rich . . . Brodesser-Akner is a keen observer of class aspiration as a survival method. -- Jennifer Wilson The New Yorker
A lip-smacking tale of family, wealth and self-destruction told with relish -- John Self Guardian
Is this book as good [as Fleishman]? It's better. Sprawling yet nimble, this is her Big American Reform Jewish Novel . . . All those well-timed twists, neat callbacks and tidy scenes are a mitzvah for this satisfying, touching novel. The talented Taffy Brodesser-Akner over here -- Sloane Crosley The New York Times
Book of the summer -- nay, the year. So funny and sprawling and beautifully written. The audio version is read by the great Edoardo Ballerini who is sublime -- David Sedaris
Brodesser-Akner had me at "hello" with this opening line from her raucous and ravishing Long Island Compromise, an epic family saga that joins the ranks of such great American novels as The Corrections and Middlesex . . . This author's talents are boundless . . . A humane, brazen, gorgeous novel whose words dance exuberantly on the page -- Leigh Haber Los Angeles Times
This novel needs to come with a health warning: don't take it on a crowded train. You will laugh inappropriately and frequently, and start reading whole passages aloud to complete strangers who catch your eye. Long Island Compromise is everything I was dreaming it would be -- shocking, tender, profound and delicious -- Emily Maitlis
Completely engrossing and absorbing; both enjoyable and funny while also substantive and profound -- Cathy Rentzenbrink
This book is DYNAMITE. Inhaled it in two sittings -- Caitlin Moran
The pleasure of Brodesser-Akner's writing is her ability to make us consider a weighty subject in a way that feels thrillingly original . . . Greatness comes so often at the expense of what is enjoyable. Long Island Compromise is both, and then some -- Marianne Levy iPaper
The status book you'll want to be seen with. As ever, Taffy Brodesser-Akner proves she's a master at uncovering the hdiden human emotions that connect us all, regardless of who we are -- Otegha Uwagba Stylist
Long Island Compromise interrogates wealth, status, dysfunctional relationships and inherited trauma, all with Brodesser-Akner's typically incisive brand of wit -- Anna Bonet iPaper
Exuberant and absorbing . . . Long Island Compromise is ingeniously plotted, its various storylines building toward several extremely satisfying plot twists -- by which I mean the best kind of twists, ones that are earned, that make the reader simultaneously gasp in surprise and want to hit oneself because, in retrospect, they make so much sense that there's no excuse for not having seen them coming . . . Like Franzen's, Brodesser-Akner's sympathies are broad and deep, and like him, she is a person on whom nothing is lost . . . She is also, like him, a sly and stylish writer, adept at using comedy and clever comedic framing to plumb the depths of her characters' misery -- Adelle Waldman Atlantic
Not many books make me laugh, gasp, and tear up within the same story, but this one did . . . One final reason to read the book? You won't understand its title until you do! -- Zeynep Kazmaz nb. Magazine
Now one of my favourite Jewish novels . . . It is SO good . . . It is [a book] that will be read for the ages and will provide a lot of joy, comfort and recognition to people now. Because it's not just a great Jewish novel, it's great literature. -- Hadley Freeman Jewish Chronicle

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. She has also written for GQ, ESPN the Magazine, and many other publications. Fleishman Is in Trouble, her first novel, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. The TV adaptation from FX, written and executive produced by Taffy, was nominated for 7 Emmys.

Long Island Compromise is Taffy's second novel. She is currently adapting the book for an Apple TV production.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble comes Long Island Compromise , a darkly exhilarating novel about an American family and its inheritance - the safety and wealth that they fought for, and the precarity of their survival that is their legacy. In 1982, wealthy businessman Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalised, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Carl, his wife and his three kids all try to move on with their lives, and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream.But nearly forty years later, when Carl's mother dies, the trauma that has been bubbling beneath the Fletchers' lives all this time surfaces at last. Finally, Carl allows himself to acknowledge what happened to him all those years ago, and face the question that's been idling in his mind for a quarter of a century: where did the ransom go? And if he were ever to find the money, would it finally give him and his family the closure they've been yearning for? Long Island Compromise spans generations, winding through decades of history all the way through to the wild present, dealing along the way with all the mainstays of American Jewish life. And through it all, it addresses timeless questions about wealth, trauma, and the American soul. PRAISE FOR FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE : ' This is the novel of the summer . . . There is no one that this book isn't for. I can't believe it's a first novel. Pure brilliance' INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Could be one of the books of my entire lifetime. I've never felt so seen' GRACE DENT, GUARDIAN ' Sharp and wicked, insightful and funny, and then suddenly so touching' DAVID NICHOLLS 'This book is a work of utter perfection' ELIZABETH GILBERT

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