The Summer We Fell Apart
A Novel

Robin Antalek's The Summer We Fell Apart was, quite simply, stunning. Books with multiple narrators typically leave me feeling detached and disjointed as a reader, unable to get close to any one particular character. But not so here, where we learn the quirks and backstories of each Haas child as we......more

Robin Antalek's soaring debut concerns the tribulations of the Haas family --- four grown children and their mother--- before, during, and after the death of the failed-playwright patriarch, who was as achingly absent in their childhoods as he is in the novel. The characters are so well drawn, their......more

I found this book to be depressing and disjointed. I did not mind that the story was told from five different views, but Amy's was the only one with any depth. Her fascination with Miriam was understandable but then she mostly disappeared until Finn's section. I still don't get why she was even intr......more

I really wanted to love this book. But I kept thinking, "I know this story. I've read a book or seen a movie with the exact same plot." The Haas family was an eight on a scale of ten in Dysfunctional. Both parents were completey self-absorbed and neglected their children unless, for some personal rea......more

Don't bother. This book holds the distinction of being the lowest rated read in the five years my book club has been meeting! Four children of a dysfunctional family each get a section to tell a part of their story. The first child to speak tells hers in first person narration; the three others' and......more