Sun House

Duncan's new novel is a sprawling comedy about love, the spirit, and the search for transcendence in a country that seldom seems to offer any. He is also the author of The River Why and The Brothers K, both of which have built a long-running, devoted readership.

The story opens with a stray bolt falling from a DC-8 jet and killing a child, an accident that throws a young Jesuit's faith into turmoil. Elsewhere, a boy whose mother dies on his fifth birthday carries a lifetime of buried anger, which he releases each year in reckless duels against whatever force allowed that chance event to happen.

A young woman running in Seattle has a sudden, shooting-star experience of love that will eventually help heal the Jesuit, the angry young man, and many others. Their travels take them to the healing country of Montana and a newly founded community, where bourbon mixed with glacier ice is the drink of choice, and where an unlikely group of spiritual refugees, city sophisticates, weary touring musicians, and local cowboys starts to discover a deep, soul-restoring pleasure in one another's company.

Sun House continues Duncan's exploration of the American hunt for meaning and love. Set against the landscapes of the American West, it views the present day through Eastern wisdom, discarded ecstatic religious ideals, and the unpredictable, far-reaching longings of the human heart.