“(Hemmings’) comic sense is finely honed in this refreshingly wry debut novel.”
“Audaciously comic . . . Hemmings channels the voice of her befuddled middle-aged hero with virtuosity…”
“Kaui Hart Hemmings eschews conventional wisdom to craft a panoramic tragicomedy about the transience of life, the painful business of being a father and husband, and the over-reaching power of history.”
“The Descendants is a brave and intelligent novel that delineates the sad irony that it can take a sundering this horrific to find the kind of understanding that brings a family together.”
The Daily Mail (London)
“Kaui Hart Hemmings’ assured touch and her fine grasp of the absurd ensures that this novel steers a deliciously scenic route between heartbreak and hilarity.”
“There is something pleasingly Douglas Coupland-like in Matt’s mixture of jittery paranoia and raw vulnerability – and how can you fail to warm to a character who punctures a child’s obsession with Spiderman by saying, “All the other superheroes call him a douche bag”?”
“Kaui Hart Hemmings’s first novel manages to both be shockingly irreverent and funny while exerting that all-important emotional tug.”
“Hemmings’ quirkily assured touch, her grasp of the absurd and the lush Hawaiian setting ensures this novel’s balance between heartbreak and hilarity.”
“The novel…offers a glimpse into a Hawai’i rarely depicted in novels and other popular culture. It might be considered one of the most notable developments in contemporary Hawai’i literature…”
“With beautiful and blunt prose, Hemmings explores the emotional terrain of grief, promising something far more fulfilling than paradise at its end.”
“It’s a daunting task to convey the emotional mess that accompanies the death of a loved one, but this novel captures both the intense sorrow and scattershot moments of levity.”
“Impressive . . . Very funny. And sad, too . . . Hemmings confidently captures the voices of Matt’s daughters—making them believably weird and awkwardly cool rather than annoyingly precocious. . . Hawaii’s stubbornly sunny weather and tranquil landscape make it a unique setting for a book about filial dysfunction .”—Time Out New York
“Hemmings has a light, comedic touch and is especially good at nailing the mysteries of 21st-century adolescents…we find ourselves not only rooting for the Kings but hailing them.”
“An impressive achievement, The Descendants is hopefully just the first in a long line of solid, enjoyable, smart yet beach-readable novels from Kaui Hart Hemmings.”
“Hemmings’ talent as a writer, a shaper of an indelible story and characters, is both affecting and clear.”
“Sex, death, family and money: So many issues to chew on, and Hemmings articulates Matt’s frustration and reluctant sense of responsibility with clarity and wit.”
“Hemmings is an extraordinary writer.”
Elle (Reader’s Prize)
“The beauty of this novel is that you care about Matthew King . . . This book is a rousing success.”
The Miami Herald
“Abounds with authentic intimacy and observations . . . The confidence of the writing soars.”
Kirkus, Starred Review
“Hemmings pulls of a remarkable feat…”
Booklist, Starred Review
As smart, perceptive, and evocative as Hemmings’ premiere literary offering was, (the superlative short-story collection House of Thieves, 2005), her irresistible debut novel is light years beyond…Evincing a sublimely mature style and beguiling command of theme and setting, Hemmings’ virtuoso performance offers a piquantly tender and winsomely comic portrait of a singular family’s revealing response to tragedy.”
Publishers Weekly
“[A] sharply observed, frequently hilarious and intermittently heartbreaking look at a well-meaning but confused father trying to hold together his unconventional family.”
“This novel is like the surf: glinting and bubbly on the surface, and then it smacks you in the face and knocks you over and suddenly you’re sputtering on the shore wondering what powerful force just worked you over.”
Daniel Handler (Adverbs, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events)
“With precision-dialogue and more than a little daring Kaui Hart Hemmings
explores the tragic, hilarious, universal, yet particular organism that is the
American family. She has crafted a first novel that is wild, sad, and deeply
true.”
Sean Wilsey (Oh The Glory Of It All)
“To literature’s collection of marvelous, larger-than-life parents, add The Descendants’ wondrous Matt King. At one moment full of tenderness, at the next saying things to his daughters that would horrify you if they weren’t so shockingly funny, he is at the center of this beguiling, very poignant novel of a man’s last-ditch effort to become a father.”
Ann Packer (The Dive From Clausen’s Pier)
“Without being told, I’d never have imagined this was a first novel. The Descendants is assured, touching, and intelligent.”
Lionel Shriver (We Need To Talk About Kevin)
“Daring, funny, and refreshing, The Descendants reveals the strangeness behind the facade of everyday life. A great magician of storytelling, Kaui Hart Hemmings leads us into a world layered with secrets, desires and unspoken truths and untruths, a world that, in the end, is where we find ourselves crying and laughing and living out our own small yet epic lives.”
Yiyun Li (A Thousand Years of Good Prayers)
“The Descendants is a compulsively readable, funny, smart, touching first novel. That a young woman like Hemmings can so seamlessly capture the voice of a heart broken husband and father of adolescent girls is nothing short of remarkable. The portrait of the King family in crisis is resonant and unforgettable.”
Tom Barbash (On Top Of The World)
“Filled with heart, paced by the strange beauty of the Hawaiian Islands, The Descendants is unlike any novel you’ll ever read. Kaui Hart Hemmings’ characters are brave, unapologetic, and completely real.”
Stephen Elliott (Happy Baby)
“This bold, taut voice is one you’ll want to follow. With humor and keen observation, Hemmings portrays the poignancy of marital jealousy, the sweet unfolding of fatherly love. A man forced to deal with his wife’s coma essentially rises from his own emotional coma and discovers his daughters, rendered here with heartbreaking accuracy.”
Elizabet Strout (Amy and Isabelle)
