{"title":"Ed Tarkington","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"fortunate-ones-book-ed-tarkington-9781643752006","title":"The Fortunate Ones","description":"The perfect read for fans of Succession or The White Lotus “As a novelist, Tarkington is the real deal. I can’t wait to see this story reach a wide audience.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife When Charlie Boykin was young, he thought his life with his single mother on the working-class side of Nashville was perfectly fine. But when his mother arranges for him to be admitted as a scholarship student to an elite private school, he is suddenly introduced to what the world can feel like to someone cushioned by money. That world, he discovers, is an almost irresistible place where one can bend—and break—rules and still end up untarnished. As he gets drawn into a friendship with a charismatic upperclassman, Archer Creigh, and an affluent family that treats him like an adopted son, Charlie quickly adapts to life in the upper echelons of Nashville society. Under their charming and alcohol-soaked spell, how can he not relax and enjoy it all—the lack of anxiety over money, the easy summers spent poolside at perfectly appointed mansions, the lavish parties, the freedom to make mistakes knowing that everything can be glossed over or fixed?   But over time, Charlie is increasingly pulled into covering for Archer’s constant deceits and his casual bigotry. At what point will the attraction of wealth and prestige wear off enough for Charlie to take a stand—and will he?   For readers of Wiley Cash, Ann Patchett, and Pat Conroy, The Fortunate Ones is an immersive, elegantly written story that conveys both the seductiveness of this world and the corruption of the people who see their ascent to the top as their birthright.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49576720302353,"sku":"GOR013706732","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745237311761,"sku":"NGR9781643752006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50388014989585,"sku":"CIN1643752006G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51693908001041,"sku":"CIN1643752006VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1643752006.jpg?v=1773313698"},{"product_id":"only-love-can-break-your-heart-book-ed-tarkington-9781616205263","title":"Only Love Can Break Your Heart","description":"“A lush mystery-within-a-coming-of-age-tale-within-a-Southern-Gothic.” —NPR Books“A richly textured portrait of small-town dysfunction and murder . . . Secrets abound, imaginations run wild.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Welcome to Spencerville, Virginia, 1977. Eight-year-old Rocky worships his older brother, Paul. Sixteen and full of rebel cool, Paul spends his days cruising in his Chevy Nova blasting Neil Young, cigarette dangling from his lips, arm slung around his beautiful, troubled girlfriend. Paul is happy to have his younger brother as his sidekick. Then one day, in an act of vengeance against their father, Paul picks up Rocky from school and nearly abandons him in the woods. Afterward, Paul disappears. Seven years later, Rocky is a teenager himself. He hasn’t forgotten being abandoned by his boyhood hero, but he’s getting over it, with the help of the wealthy neighbors’ daughter, ten years his senior, who has taken him as her lover. Unbeknownst to both of them, their affair will set in motion a course of events that rains catastrophe on both their families. 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Secrets abound, imaginations run wild. \u003ci\u003e--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Welcome to Spencerville, Virginia, 1977. A time when teen-agers roamed wild and free. When sons worshipped God, loved their mothers, and feared their fathers. And when eight-year-old Rocky still worshipped his older brother Paul--sixteen and full of rebel cool--who was happy to have his younger brother as his sidekick, until one day things went terribly wrong between them and Paul disappeared. Seven years later, Rocky, now a teenager himself, must reckon with the past after a mysterious double murder brings terror and suspicion to their small town, and to their broken family. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Ed Tarkington's pitch-perfect first novel pays tribute to music, love and growing up in small-town America . . . [It's] a murder mystery wrapped in the cloak of Southern Gothic charm. \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Chicago Tribune\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e An engrossing and surprisingly comfortable read . . . that brings to mind both Harper Lee and Stephen King's 'The Body' . . . creating a story that is at once bizarre and utterly familiar. \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Washington Independent Review of Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e I've heard it said that all good fiction is about blood, love or money. If that's true, then Ed Tarkington has hit the trifecta with his soulful first novel . . . Plainspoken yet elegant prose, with a heavy dash of good old-fashioned storytelling. \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Minneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Fans of Kathryn Stockett's \u003ci\u003eThe Help\u003c\/i\u003e will embrace debut author Tarkington's depiction of Southern life at a time of changing social mores . . . 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I can't wait to see this story reach a wide audience, and to see what he does next. --Paula McLain, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Wife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e When Charlie Boykin was young, he thought his life with his single mother on the working-class side of Nashville was perfectly fine. But when his mother arranges for him to be admitted as a scholarship student to an elite private school, he is suddenly introduced to what the world can feel like to someone cushioned by money. That world, he discovers, is an almost irresistible place where one can bend--and break--rules and still end up untarnished. As he gets drawn into a friendship with a charismatic upperclassman, Archer Creigh, and an affluent family that treats him like an adopted son, Charlie quickly adapts to life in the upper echelons of Nashville society. Under their charming and alcohol-soaked spell, how can he not relax and enjoy it all--the lack of anxiety over money, the easy summers spent poolside at perfectly appointed mansions, the lavish parties, the freedom to make mistakes knowing that everything can be glossed over or fixed? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e But over time, Charlie is increasingly pulled into covering for Archer's constant deceits and his casual bigotry. 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