The Book of Joe, Jonathan Tropper
The Book of Joe, Jonathan Tropper
List: $12.95 | Sale: $9.07
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The Book of Joe

Author: Jonathan Tropper

Narrator: Tom Cavanagh

Abridged: 5 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/30/2004


Synopsis

A man must return to the hometown he disowned in this “sweet, deft, and sentimental coming-of-age-at-34 story” (New York Daily News) from the New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where I Leave You

“An elegiac, wickedly observant look at a small town and its secrets.”—Tom Perrotta, author of Mrs. Fletcher

Fifteen years after leaving Sleepy Bush Falls, Connecticut, Joe Goffman wrote a savage bestselling novel about his hometown. The book went on to become a hit movie, making Joe a pariah in the Falls, which was fine with him, since he never planned on going back. But when a family tragedy strikes, Joe is left with no choice. His return ignites a maelstrom of hostility among the town’s still enraged residents.

As Joe walks the familiar streets of his childhood, he revisits the terrible events of his senior year in high school, and the heartbreak and catastrophe from which he’s never fully recovered. After almost two decades of hiding it, Joe will finally have to face his troubled past and start mending fences with family, onetime schoolmates, and a former love. And with the help of some old friends, Joe might actually learn something—if he manages to live through the homecoming.

About The Author

Jonathan Tropper lives in New Rochelle, New York, with his family. He is currently at work on his second novel for Bantam Dell.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jonathan on February 07, 2016

This is Where I Leave You is wonderful and if you liked it enough - you will probably read this book (also by Jonathan Tropper), but you probably won't like it as much. I wish it would have stuck with it's original title - Bush Falls. I like that a lot more, as it is the book which the main characte......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on September 28, 2023

Tropper is awesome. I love all his books. He is funny and irreverent and his characters are always charming in a jerky sort of way. This is a story about a guy who wrote a "fiction" novel about his high school and home town, never expecting to ever go back there. Needless to say, he wasn't a popular......more

Goodreads review by Jake on September 22, 2009

So the story is this: Smartass non-athlete kid grows up in a shitty sports town, moves away at 18 and writes a book savaging everyone he grew up with. After 15 years, the now-successful writer has to return to town because his father (who he hated) is sick. There's potential there. Despite being a bla......more


Quotes

"A beautifully crafted book of enormous heart, humility, wit, honesty, and vulnerability. You want to call your friends at 3:00 AM and read whole passages out loud. You want to press it into the hands of strangers. You cannot stop thinking about it because it has rearranged your very molecules. You know that kind of book? This is that kind of book. The Book of Joe is utterly magnificent. I wish I'd written it myself."—Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors

"The Book of Joe is an elegiac, wickedly observant look at a small town and its secrets. In Jonathan Tropper's highly readable novel, the problem isn't that you can't go home again, it's that eventually you have to, whether you like it or not."—Tom Perrotta, author of Election and Joe College

"A sweet, deft and sentimental coming-of-age-at-34 story. .... [Tropper's] humor keeps his tale buoyant."
--The Daily News (NY)

"The Book of Joe will make you laugh and cry. Tropper has a very readable style, and Joe is a character you can connect with, warts and all."
--Associated Press