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  • Published: 15 February 2016
  • ISBN: 9780099597780
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $27.99

The Possibilities




From the author of The Descendants, a novel about grief, love and parenthood.

‘Like the wonderful Anne Tyler, Hemmings writes witty, immersive, immensely readable and deeply humane fiction about entirely believable characters’ Metro

Sarah St. John is reeling. Her twenty-two year old son, Cully, has been killed in an avalanche and, much as she'd like to be left alone to grieve quietly, no one will let her. Her father, a retired shopping channel addict has moved into her basement. Her best friend, a divorcee who always manages to say the wrong thing, has become something of a life-coach. And then there’s Cully’s father, whose sudden re-emergence in Sarah’s life stirs a cauldron of emotions. Just as Sarah is ready to face the world, a girl called Kit appears on her doorstep. And she’s got a secret that will change all their lives forever.

  • Published: 15 February 2016
  • ISBN: 9780099597780
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $27.99

About the author

Kaui Hart Hemmings

Kaui Hart Hemmings is the author of the novel, The Descendants, which was made into a major motion picture, and the critically acclaimed short-story collection House of Thieves. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope, Best American Voices 2006, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004. Hemmings grew up in Hawaii and lives with her husband and daughter in San Francisco.

Also by Kaui Hart Hemmings

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Praise for The Possibilities

Like the wonderful American novelist Anne Tyler, Hemmings writes witty, immersive, immensely readable and deeply humane fiction about entirely believable characters.

Patricia Nicol, Metro

Touching and terrifically well written.

Good Housekeeping

This is a novel that creeps up on you, its frequent bursts of humour masking a gentle yet astute examination of the various ways in which people deal with bereavement and the bereaved.

Natasha Tripney, Observer

Absorbing novel about grief and coping.

RTE Guide

I was reminded of the film Little Miss Sunshine; the book has the same unsentimental approach to life’s big events.

Lucy Scholes, Independent

This is a satisfying and elegant insight into families, and what grief does to us - and likely another bestseller for Hart Hemmings.

Edel Coffey, Irish Independent

It is a quiet novel that packs a punch.

Sarah Gilmartin, Sunday Business Post

Gorgeous and sad and exhilarating

Chicago Tribune

A remarkable tale of loss and love and a twist that will completely sideline you

Marie Claire

Hemmings manages to combine an examination of the effects of Cully’s death on his mother, family and friends with a wit and lightness of touch that makes this finally an uplifting read… The best novel I’ve read this year.

Sue Glynn, Nudge

A very enjoyable, often funny read.

Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner

A piercing, empathetic story about parenthood and unfathomable heartbreak and manages to bring humor and hope to her characters… an astute and sensitive examination of relationships, loss and grief.

Kirkus Reviews

Hemmings deftly deploys her idyllic setting, leavens tragedy with humor, avoids sentimentality, and offers characters whom readers will find very appealing.

Booklist ***

With a deft and dry humor, Hemmings tackles the unique and unexpectedly humorous ways in which one is expected to mourn… But, on closer inspection, the novel is a treatise on parenthood: Sarah struggles less with Cully’s death, and more with the fear that she never really knew him at all.

PW (starred) and Pick of the Week

A graceful, subtle primer on freedom - the means by which we free (and forgive) ourselves, our parents, and our children, as well as the almost unbearable getting-of-wisdom by which we free our beloved dead. The Possibilities is familiar to us, in all its wit and intelligence, because we know the characters. We are the characters.

Susanna Moore, author of The Life of Objects

In smooth, nuanced prose, Kaui Hart Hemmings deftly captures the emotional hurdles that pin our day-to-day lives to the map of the universe. The Possibilities is a heartrending story of grief, resilience, and ultimately joy in all the tumult that loving other people inevitably demands. A soulful gem of a novel that reminds us to treasure every fleeting, crystalline moment of family love and our imperfect lives.

Carol Cassella, author of Gemini