Crossroads (PB) - C-format

"Crossroads" is Jonathan Franzen’s ambitious novel about the soul and society of America in the 1970’s.

It’s Christmas in 1971 and the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church in Chicago, Russ Hildebrandt, is one step from breaking his joyless marriage with his wife Marion. Unless she beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, comes home from college with a secret that will destroy his father all while their daughter, Becky, who was the social queen of her high-school class, now is joining the counterculture and their gifted youngest son Perry, who sold drugs to other kids, now is turned into a good guy. All of the family members are seeking a new freedom which is threatened by the others.

Jonathan Franzen unfolds a deep and psychological portrait of a family and a USA in crisis in the 1970’s. "Crossroads" depicts an era of American riots, seminal changes and the traumas from the Vietnam war with unforgettably vivid characters and interwoven perspectives .