num_pages: 176
description: A Great American Novel -- from the author of 'Borrowed Finery'. Otto and Sophie Bentwood live childless in a renovated Brooklyn brownstone. The complete works of Goethe line their bookshelf, their stainless steel kitchen is newly installed, and their Mercedes is parked outside. After Sophie is bitten on the hand while trying to feed a half-starved neighbourhood cat, a series of small and ominous disasters begin to plague their lives, revealing the faultlines and fractures in a marriage -- and a society -- wrenching itself apart. Includes an introduction by Jonathan Franzen.
language: English
title: Desperate Characters
titlecomplete: Desperate Characters
characters: Charlie Russel, Otto Bentwood, Francis Early, Claire Fischer, Leon Fischer, Sophie Bentwood
genres: 20th Century, American, New York, Female Authors, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 8076
places: Brooklyn, New York City, New York
publisher: Flamingo