Publisher: St. Martin's Press (February 14, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250092124
ISBN-13: 978-1250092120
In this uplifting book, Rohan writes in the distinct voice of Big Billy
Brennan—an overweight father who has an emotional dependency on food.
When he tragically loses his son to suicide, however, the solace he once
found in eating disappears. He decides to
embark on a public weight loss campaign to raise money for suicide
prevention, setting out to redeem himself and save his family by losing
half of his 400 lbs.
THE WEIGHT OF HIM is the perfect feel-good novel to curl up with this
winter. It’s about people putting themselves back together and becoming
their best selves, whole and at peace. Ethel says: “So many people
suffer, in ways small and in ways crushing…Ultimately,
I wrote THE WEIGHT OF HIM as a call for love—love of others, love of
ourselves.”
At four hundred pounds, Billy Brennan can
always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food’s
colors, textures and tastes. The way flavors go off in his mouth. How
food keeps his mind still and his bad feelings
quiet. Food has always made everything better, until the day Billy’s
beloved son Michael takes his own life.
Billy determines to make a difference in
Michael’s memory and undertakes a public weight-loss campaign, to raise
money for suicide prevention—his first step in an ambitious plan to save
himself, and to save others. However, Billy’s
dramatic crusade appalls his family, who want to simply try to go on.
Despite his crushing detractors, Billy
gains welcome allies: his community-at-large; a co-worker who lost his
father to suicide; a filmmaker with his own dubious agenda; and a
secret, miniature kingdom that Billy populates with
the sub-quality dolls and soldiers he rescues from disposal at the
local toy factory where he works. But it is only if Billy can confront
the truth of his pain, suffering, and the brokenness around him, that he
and others will be able to realize the full rescue
and change they need.
Set in rural, contemporary Ireland, The Weight of Him
is an unforgettable, big-hearted novel about loss and reliance that
moves from tragedy to recrimination to what can be achieved when we take
the stand of our lives.
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Ethel Rohan is the author of two story collections,
Goodnight Nobody and Cut Through the Bone, the former
longlisted for The Edge Hill Prize and the latter longlisted for The
Story Prize. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, World
Literature Today, GUERNICA Magazine, Tin House Online,The
Rumpus, and many more. Born and raised in Ireland, she lives in San
Francisco.
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Read a Chapter Excerpt Below:
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Read a Chapter Excerpt Below: