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Jonathan Franzen
Strong Motion
4th Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2017
Copyright © Jonathan Franzen 1992
Cover design and illustration by Richard Bravery
Jonathan Franzen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint lyrics from the following songs: ‘I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass’, words & music by Nick Lowe, Andrew Bodnar & Stephen Goulding, BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, a BMG Company; ‘Marie Provost’, words & music by Nick Lowe, BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, a BMG Company; ‘See No Evil’ (T. Verlaine), courtesy Hal Leonard Corporation.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins
Source ISBN: 9781841157498
Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780007383238 Version: 2017-11-27
From the reviews of Strong Motion:
‘An affirmation of Mr Franzen’s fierce imagination and distinctive seriocomic voice’
New York Times Book Review
‘Ingeniously put together … His ear for American vernacular is flawless … His gift for description has a kinetic immediacy’
Seattle Times
‘Lyrical, dramatic and, above all, fearless … We’re in the presence of a great American moralist in the tradition of Dreiser, Twain, or Sinclair Lewis’
Philadelphia Inquirer
‘By sheer force of his imaginative writing and his unsheathed views of American life, Mr Franzen succeeds in joining together a love story, a family story, and a corporate-cum-environmental story … Distinctly original’
New York Times
‘Heartwrenchingly real characters … perfect pitch … Franzen’s almost-Boston is shimmeringly alive and palpable’
San Diego Union-Tribune
‘A young writer of exceptional skill and vision … insightful … dazzling to behold … a brave author, not afraid to take tremendous risks’
Orlando Sentinel
‘Complicated and absorbing with a fair mix of intrigue, social commentary, and humor laced with a tinge of malice’
Washington Times
‘With this work, Franzen confidently assumes a position as one of the brightest lights of American letters … Part thriller, part comedy of manners, Strong Motion is full of suspense’
Cleveland Plain Dealer
‘[Franzen] is a writer of almost frightening talent and promise’
Miami Herald
For Valerie
A rock was sticking out of the water, jagged and pointed, covered with moss—a remnant of the Ice Age and of the glacier that had once gouged out this basin in the earth. It had withstood the rains, the snows, the frost, the heat. It was afraid of no one. It did not need redemption, it had already been redeemed.
—I. B. SINGER
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