Perfect - by Rachel Joyce (Paperback)

About the Book

In the aftermath of a life-shattering accident in the English countryside in 1972, twelve-year-old Byron Hemming struggles with events that his mother does not seem to remember and embarks on a journey to discover what really did or did not happen.

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes "a poignant, searing tale" (O: The Oprah Magazine) about a young boy who is thrown into the murky, difficult realities of the adult world.

"A powerful book, rich with empathy and charged with beautiful, atmospheric writing."--Tana French

A nice house in a tony neighborhood. A hardworking husband. A private school for the children. From the outside, Diana has a perfect life. But her sensitive and observant young son notices that the other kids' mothers are not like his own. They dress differently. Byron's father prefers that his wife dress formally, in slim skirts and pointy heels. He gives Diana a Jaguar so neighbors will sit up and take notice. And they do.

Then, one morning, during a shortcut to school through a poor neighborhood, something happens that Byron cannot shake and his mother refuses to acknowledge. Until she has no choice. In the weeks that follow, the façade of a happy family shows signs of distress. Diana makes a questionable friend, and an increasingly tense dance begins--between guilt and resentment, envy and regret--all leading to a tragedy and a shattering revelation.

Review Quotes

"Touching, eccentric . . . Joyce does an inviting job of setting up these mysterious circumstances, and of drawing Byron's magical closeness with Diana."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Haunting . . . compelling."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"[Joyce] triumphantly returns with Perfect. . . . As Joyce probes the souls of Diana, Byron and Jim, she reveals--slowly and deliberately, as if peeling back a delicate onion skin--the connection between the two stories, creating a poignant, searching tale."--O: The Oprah Magazine

"Perfect touches on class, mental illness, and the ways a psyche is formed or broken. It has the tenor of a horror film, and yet at the end, in some kind of contortionist trick, the narrative unfolds into an unexpected burst of redemption. [Verdict: ] Buy It."--New York

"Joyce's dark, quiet follow-up to her successful debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, could easily become a book club favorite. . . . Perfect is the kind of book that blossoms under thoughtful examination, its slow tendencies redeemed by moments of loveliness and insight. However sad, Joyce's messages--about the limitations of time and control, the failures of adults and the fears of children, and our responsibility for our own imprisonment and freedom--have a gentle ring of truth to them."--The Washington Post

"There is a poignancy to Joyce's narrative that makes for her most memorable writing."--NPR's All Things Considered

"Beautifully written . . . Joyce showed an incredible sensitivity and understanding when she wrote about the impact of mental illness in Harold Fry, and that talent shines even brighter now that she's devoting more space to the subject. . . . Joyce is great at building tension, with her prose managing to give huge weight to a menacing comment or a small mistake."--The A.V. Club

"Perfect is a poignant and powerful book, rich with empathy and charged with beautiful, atmospheric writing."--Tana French, author of In the Woods and Broken Harbor

"[Rachel] Joyce, showing the same talent for adroit plot development seen in the bestselling The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, brings both narrative strands together in a shocking, redemptive denouement."--Publishers Weekly

"If only there were more novelists like Rachel Joyce. . . . [The character] Diana herself is faultless. She is to Perfect what Harold Fry was to Unlikely: a fully rounded hero, someone to fall in love with."--The Telegraph (UK)

"[Perfect's] unputdownable factor . . . lies in its exploration of so many multilayered emotions. There is the unbreakable bond between mother and son, the fear of not belonging . . . and how love can offer redemption."--London Evening Standard

About the Author

Rachel Joyce is the author of the international bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. She is also the award-winning writer of more than twenty plays for BBC Radio 4. She started writing after a twenty-year acting career, in which she performed leading roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company and won multiple awards. Rachel Joyce lives with her family on a Gloucestershire farm.