Day at the Beach: A Novel - Couverture souple

"Impressive and effortless-looking . . . A Day At the Beach is a riveting story that captures the zeitgeist pitch-perfectly." --Kurt Andersen, author of The Turn of the Century and Heyday and host of "Studio 360"

"Schulman succeeds in creating an identifiable emotional landscape out of an incomprehensible tragedy." Kirkus Reviews

"[Schulman writes with] a depth and realism that disturbingly recalls the events [of 9/11] while also transforming them into art." Library Journal Starred

"A haunting, poignant remembrance." Publishers Weekly

"Schulman bravely and skillfully illuminates the domino effect of the falling towers on people’s psyches and lives." --Bliss Broyard Elle

"Finely wrought, deeply felt and mercifully funny." --Sarah Towers The New York Times Book Review

"Entrancing . . . [Schulman] exhibits an artist's eye for detail." --Melissa Rose Bernardo Entertainment Weekly

"Tackles its own concerns . . . with skill and intelligence. It's a novel of ideas, in the very best sense." --Carolyn See The Washington Post

"Makes me feel physically ill with jealousy that I did not write it, but physically ill in a good way." --Anne Lamott Time Magazine

"[Helen Schulman's] writing is distractingly, almost brazenly beautiful." The New Yorker

"Intense, disconcerting . . . a standout in the increasingly crowded field of 9/11 novels." --Ruth Franklin, Slate

The marriage of Gerhard and Suzannah Falktopf is already in trouble when tragedy strikes on the morning of September 11, 2001. Though they escape harm when the planes crash into the towers, husband and wife are suddenly cast into an unpredictable psychological space that allows their repressed selves, and their sharp differences, to rise to the surface. With their young son and nanny in tow, they head for the safety of the Hamptons. But despite their soft landing in this cocoon of privilege, the unleashed demons will push them to their psychic limits -- so much so that by the next morning they will hardly recognize each other.
Taking place over a manic twenty-four hours, A Day at the Beach is a fast-paced, razor-sharp story whose personal tragedy contains sparks of dark humor about American life pre- and post-9/11. Helen Schulman has crafted a powerful portrait of a marriage in crisis, framed by one of the darkest events in our country’s history.