Heft

by Liz Moore

Overview

A heartwarming novel about larger-than-life characters and second chances.

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career—if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene’s unexpected phone call to Arthur—a plea for help—that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. Like Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House, Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393082890
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/04/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	588,881
File size:	781 KB

About the Author

Liz Moore is a writer and musician. Her debut novel, The Words of Every Song, was published in 2007, and she recently released her album Backyards. She is a professor at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, where she lives.

What People are Saying About This

Russell Banks

This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal — she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it.

Ann Hood

In Heft, Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!

Mary Gordon

Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication.

Colum McCann

A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices.

Editorial Reviews

…engaging, quirky…Arthur's voice is engaging. His honesty is funny, even if the revelations of his haplessness are painful…Without archness or overly artistic sentences, Heft achieves real poignancy. [Moore]'s explanation of Arthur's psychology is perhaps too neat, but the warmth, the humanity and the hope in this novel make it compelling and pleasurable.
—The Washington Post

Carole Burns

"In Heft, Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!"

Ann Hood

"Arthur Opp is heartbreaking. A 58-year old former professor of literature, he weighs 550 lbs., hasn’t left his Brooklyn apartment in years and is acutely attuned to both the painful and analgesic dimensions of his self-imposed solitude. Kel Keller, a handsome and popular high school athlete whose mother drinks too much to take care of him or even herself, faces his own wrenching struggles. The pair, apparently connected only by a slender thread, at first seem unlikely as co-narrators and protagonists of this novel, but they both become genuine heroes as their separate journeys through loneliness finally intersect. Though Moore’s narrative is often deeply sad, it is never maudlin. She writes with compassion and emotional insight but resists sentimentality , briskly moving her plot forward, building suspense and empathy. Most impressive is her ability to thoroughly inhabit the minds of Arthur and Kel; these are robust, complex characters to champion, not pity. The single word of the title is obviously a reference to Arthur’s morbid obesity, but it also alludes to the weight of true feelings and the courage needed to confront them. Heft leads to hope."

People Magazine

"A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices."

Colum McCann

"This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal — she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it."

Russell Banks

"Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication."

Mary Gordon

"[W]hen you've finished and returned Heft to the library or lent it to a friend or archived it on your e-reader, you'll find yourself missing having the characters around. You'll wonder, while you're waiting for the light to change or kneading bread dough, what happened next. ...Moore [has] created characters that I'll probably never forget."

NPR.org - Nancy Pearl

This multilayered novel is deepened by two first-person narrations, which are expertly voiced by Keith Szarabajka and Kirby Heyborne. Szarabajka’s command of tone provides an authentic portrayal of Arthur, a former college professor who—rejected by his father, his peers, and his love interest, Charlene—becomes an obese recluse. Heyborne’s appealing, well-crafted performance brings out the adolescent angst of Kel, son of the alcoholic Charlene. Kel struggles as he grows up in a working-class neighborhood while maintaining his popular jock identity at his prestigious high school. Themes of classism, rejection, loneliness, and escape course throughout this poignant story. The unique strengths of each narrator enable listeners to connect with both Arthur and Kel as they discover themselves, each other, and their mutual connection to Charlene. K.C.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2013 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2012 - AudioFile