Independence Day — Richard Ford

It is the Fourth of July weekend, and we meet Frank Bascombe in the throes of what he calls his ‘Existence Period’ – selling real estate in New Jersey and mastering the high-wire act of normalcy. But as Independence Day arrives, Frank is called into a sudden, demanding engagement with his son and with his life. Independence Day is a moving, peerlessly funny odyssey through America and through the layered consciousness of one of its most compelling literary incarnations, conducted by a novelist of extraordinary empathy and perception.

‘Independence Day is a book that leaves you feeling more uplifted, more consoled, than you did before reading it ... In Frank Bascombe, Ford has created a great American character for the age’ DAILY TELEGRAPH‘Powerful ... As gripping as it is affecting ... Ford has galvanised his reputation as one of his generation’s most eloquent voices’ - NEW YORK TIMES