'[Kennedy] possesses a Hitchcockian approach to this narrative hub; tension and twists are administered in equal measure . . . The ordinary becomes, through his careful plotting, extraordinary.' - Independent on Sunday
"All families are secret societies. Realms of intrigue and internal warfare, governed by their own rules . . ."
It's 1980s New York. Heady, excessive times. Alice Burns - a young book editor - is deep into a manuscript about the morass of family life. The observations resonates, perhaps because she has just watched her own family implode.
As she reads she wonders: When did the sadness start? And could it be that unhappiness is a choice?
Thus begins a great American epic which follows Alice as she navigates high school bullying, first love and sexism at an elite college, a spell in 1970's Ireland, and a tragedy that sends her stateside as the US embraces a cowboy actor named Reagan. But it is also the tale of her endlessly complex parents and brothers; how their destinies are written by the lies they tell themselves and others.
The Great Wide Open is an immensely ambitious and compulsive saga; a novel which will speak volumes to anyone who has marvelled at that pain that can only be caused by family itself.
'In his fast-paced, engrossing novels Douglas Kennedy always has his brilliant finger on the entertaining parts of human sorrow, fury, and narrow escapes.' - Lorrie Moore
'Kennedy's skill is to send you racing down the slope of sheer story.' - Esquire



![Walter Macken PREORDER NONFICTION New Macken Walter: Seek the Fair Land [2025] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/walter-macken-macken-walter-seek-the-fair-land-2025-paperback-9781035065349-1146088201_{width}x.jpg?v=1765036902)
![Mccullough, Colleen & Binchy, Maeve BARGAIN FICTION PAPERBACK Colleen Mccullough: The Thorn Birds [2007] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/mccullough-colleen-binchy-maeve-colleen-mccullough-the-thorn-birds-2007-paperback-1157081940_{width}x.jpg?v=1745179057)
![Trollope, Joanna FICTION PAPERBACK Joanna Trollope: The Rector's Wife [1992] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/trollope-joanna-joanna-trollope-the-rector-s-wife-1992-paperback-58154513236307_{width}x.jpg?v=1727169429)
![Barry, Sebastian FICTION PAPERBACK Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture [2009] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/barry-sebastian-sebastian-barry-the-secret-scripture-2009-paperback-56074609099091_{width}x.jpg?v=1716204187)
![Schlink, Prof Bernhard FICTION PAPERBACK Prof Bernhard Schlink: The Reader [2008] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/schlink-prof-bernhard-prof-bernhard-schlink-the-reader-2008-paperback-60516779622739_{width}x.jpg?v=1735018141)