Cost

A Novel

Roxana Robinson

Picador

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Julia Lambert, an artist, is spending the summer in her old Maine farmhouse. During a visit from her elderly parents, she hopes to mend complicated relationships with her domineering father, a retired neurosurgeon, and her gentle mother, who is descending into the fog of Alzheimer's. But a shattering revelation intrudes: Julia's son, Jack, has spiraled into heroin addiction. In her attempts to save him, Julia marshals help from her loosely knit clan, but Jack's addiction courses through the family with a devastating energy, sweeping them all into a world of confusion, fear, and obsession. In Cost, Roxana Robinson applies her "trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family life" and creates a "warmly human and deeply satisfying book, marking a new level of ambition and achievement for this talented author" (Chicago Tribune).

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Book Excerpts

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Her memory was gone.

It came to Katharine like a soft shock, like a blow inside the head. She was in the yellow bedroom at her daughter’s house in Maine, standing at the bureau, getting ready for lunch. She’d just finished doing her hair, smoothing it back to her modest bun, tucking in the small combs to hold it in place. The combs were hardly necessary now, her long, fine hair—still mostly black—had turned wispy and weightless, and no longer needed restraint. But vanity, like beauty, is partly habit, and Katharine still put the combs carefully into her thinning

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Reviews

Praise for Cost

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE
A WASHINGTON POST TOP FIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR
A SEATTLE TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Artfully portrays a family transformed by the far-reaching consequences of a son's heroin addiction."--Vanity Fair

"Cost applies Roxana Robinson's trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family life. . . . A warmly human and deeply satisfying book, marking a new level of ambition and achievement for this talented author."--Chicago Tribune

"Scarily good . . . with such fierce moments of anxiety and grief, this is, frankly, a challenging novel to read, but Robinson's insight makes it impossible to break away."--The Washington Post

"Pitch-perfect . . . Cost is unusual for being as plot-driven as it is character-driven, and the assured manner in which Robinson builds toward the inevitable train wreck is matched by her acuity in bringing us inside the characters’ minds."--The New York Times Book Review

"Cost is unsparing but not bleak. It is both lyrical and unsentimental, richly honest and humane--summer reading of uncommon stature."--The Wall Street Journal

"Gripping . . . Robinson paints a chilling portrait of addiction."--People

"An emotionally incisive story about change--the permeable bonds between family members and an individual's fluctuating sense of self."--Time Out (New York)

"[A] piercing novel . . . Robinson has always been a sensitive and revelatory writer, but she attains new degrees of intensity here. . . . Her illuminations of the churning inner lives of her smart and deep-feeling characters depict good people facing brutal forces beyond the reach of reason and love."--Booklist

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About the Author

Roxana Robinson

ROXANA ROBINSON is the author of three earlier novels, three collections of short stories, and the biography Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, More, and Vogue, among other publications.

Roxana Robinson

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Available Formats and Book Details

Cost
A Novel
Roxana Robinson

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Picador
May 2009
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780312428464
ISBN10: 0312428464
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 448 pages
$15.00
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e-Book Agency

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e-Book Agency
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Sarah Crichton Books
June 2008
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429928090
ISBN10: 1429928093
6 x 9 inches, 432 pages
$9.99
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