Лучшие книги Корен Зайлцкас

Джозефин Херст держит свою семью под контролем. Ее жизнь прекрасна: две красивые дочки, сын — гений, а муж — настоящий технический гуру. У нее есть все, о чем можно мечтать — нужно только это сохранить. Но для ее семьи жизнь под гнетом псевдо-жизнерадостного матриарха невыносима. После побега старшей дочери с таинственным парнем Джозефин усиливает хватку, постепенно превращая свой безупречный дом в тюрьму строгого режима. Когда в дверь стучится представитель службы защиты детей, хранить секреты становится все труднее. Джозефин придется решить, на что она способна пойти, чтобы поддержать идеальный фасад счастливой семьи.

"Староватая для инженю, я примерила роль избалованной домохозяйки".

Грейси Мюллер — гордая мать двоих детей и преданная жена, живущая в северной части штата Нью-Йорк. Ее рутина — маленькие дети, брак и финансовое благополучие.

Образ "обыкновенной женщины" всегда удавался Грейси на славу: скрывая свое прошлое, она никого не подпускала слишком близко. Даже собственного мужа Рэнди, который ежегодно поздравлял ее с вымышленным днем рождения.

Когда работа Рэнди перестает быть гарантом экономической стабильности, Грейси понимает: пора вспомнить, чему научил ее любимый отец — как красть чужие личности, чтобы выжить.

The day Koren turned fourteen she tasted alcohol for the first time. At fifteen she was piecing together forgotten fragments of drink, men and misplaced clothes. At sixteen she was being carried through hospital doors unconscious. And so it began...

Brought up by loving parents in a stable middle-class home, Koren was a sweet and altogether normal child. Yet from her mid-teens until her early twenties, she thought nothing of regularly drinking herself into a state of amnesia. Alcohol became her safeguard and prop, providing her with a self-confidence she couldn't otherwise feel. And whilst drinking to excess was perfectly acceptable, even actively encouraged, amongst her friends, it quickly reached a destructive monotony that bordered on dependency. It took a number of terrifying incidents - from stumbling home alone covered in vomit to waking up naked in bed unsure of whether she had lost her virginity - before Koren could finally say to herself enough was enough and seek help for her problem.

Smashed is the shocking but all-too-recognisable story of a young woman coming of age within a society that finds it easier to turn a blind eye to binge-drinking than address the problem head on. Beautifully written and brutally honest, compelling without preaching, this is a book that demands to be read.

Garnering a vast amount of attention from young people and parents, and from book buyers across the country, Smashed became a media sensation and a New York Times bestseller. Eye-opening and utterly gripping, Koren Zailckas’s story is that of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics—yet—but who routinely use booze as a shortcut to courage and a stand-in for good judgment.With one stiff sip of Southern Comfort at the age of fourteen, Zailckas is initiated into the world of drinking. From then on, she will drink faithfully, fanatically. In high school, her experimentation will lead to a stomach pumping. In college, her excess will give way to a pattern of self-poisoning that will grow more destructive each year. At age twenty-two, Zailckas will wake up in an unfamiliar apartment in New York City, elbow her friend who is passed out next to her, and ask, "Where are we?" Smashed is a sober look at how she got there and, after years of blackouts and smashups, what it took for her to realize she had to stop drinking. Smashed is an astonishing literary debut destined to become a classic.