Cartwheel
Named one of the best books of the year by Slate, Cosmopolitan, Salon, BookPage, Buzzfeed, and Guernica
Written with the riveting storytelling and moral seriousness of authors like Emma Donoghue, Adam Johnson, Ann Patchett, and Curtis Sittenfeld, Cartwheel is a suspenseful and haunting novel of an American foreign exchange student arrested for murder, and a father trying to hold his family together.
When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans.
Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who’s asking. As the case takes shape—revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA—Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her: the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction. With mordant wit and keen emotional insight, Cartwheel offers a prismatic investigation of the ways we decide what to see—and to believe—in one another and ourselves.
Praise for Cartwheel
““Like its namesake, Cartwheel will upend you; rarely does a novel this engaging ring so true. Inscribed with the emotional intimacy of memory, this is one story you will not soon forget.” ”
““Cartwheel is so gripping, so fantastically evocative, that I could not, would not, put it down. Jennifer duBois is a writer of thrilling psychological precision. She dares to pause a moment, digging into the mess of crime and accusation, culture and personality, the known and unknown, and coming up with a sensational novel of profound depth.””
“ “Psychologically astute… dangerously funny… The writing in ‘Cartwheel’ is a pleasure: electric, fine-tuned, intelligent, conflicted.” ”
““[T]he emotional intelligence in Cartwheel is so sharp it’s almost ruthless—a tabloid tragedy elevated to high art. A-.””
““Provocative, meaningful, and suspenseful…[A] page-turner.”
”
““Cartwheel can only be read at a manic, stay-up-all-night kind of pace…Utterly engrossing.””
““With Cartwheel, Ms. duBois makes herself heir to the great novelists of the past.””
““From the first page, duBois’ intelligent, penetrating writing makes this sad story captivating…” ”
““Sure-footed and psychologically calibrated...Reviewers of duBois’ first novel, “A Partial History of Lost Causes,” called it brainy and beautiful, a verdict that fits this successor.” ”
““An astonishing, breathtaking, and harrowing read.””
““Masterful…[A] compelling, carefully crafted, and most importantly, satisfying novel.” ”
Buy the Book
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell's Books | Kindle | Nook