{"product_id":"what-the-family-needed-isbn-9781594632358","title":"What the Family Needed","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this incandescent novel, a family’s superpowers bestow not instant salvation but the miracle of accepting who they are.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Okay, tell me which you want,” Alek asks his cousin at the outset of \u003ci\u003eWhat the Family Needed\u003c\/i\u003e. “To be able to fly or to be invisible.” And soon Giordana, a teenager suffering the bitter fallout of her parents’ divorce, finds that she can, at will, become as invisible as she feels. Later, Alek’s mother, newly adrift in the disturbing awareness that all is not well with her younger son, can suddenly swim with Olympic endurance. Over three decades, in fact, each member of this gorgeously imagined extended family discovers, at a moment of crisis, that he or she possesses a supernatural power. \u003cp\u003eBut instead of crimes to fight and villains to vanquish, they confront inner demons, and their extraordinary abilities prove not to be magic weapons so much as expressions of their fears and longings as they struggle to come to terms with who they are and what fate deals them. As the years pass, their lives intersect and overlap in surprising and poignant ways, and they discover that the real magic lies not in their superpowers but in the very human and miraculous way they are able to accept, protect, and love one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\"Remarkable ... at once magical and very normal, a wishful fantasy about the strength it can take to love one's family members well.\" \u003cb\u003eA\u003c\/b\u003e –\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I loved this book… What I thought was so wonderful and moving about this book is, on the one hand, it’s filled with really careful observation of quotidian details—it feels so real—and then there are these twists… This is really what a great storyteller does.” –Bill Goldstein, “Bill’s Books,” NBC New York\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Brilliant, unexpected, wide-ranging and deeply moving, the story of one family's extraordinary—and sometimes otherworldly— negotiation of the very real hazards of life.”  –Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Steven Amsterdam is a superhero and his power is to create stunningly crafted, heartbreaking stories that are as fun as they are brilliant. In this story of a ‘super family,’ the greatest ability on display is Amsterdam's own control of story, which outshines the fantastic by being even more so.” –Mat Johnson, author of \u003ci\u003ePym\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There are moments when the writing's simplicity becomes its own kind of superpower… the book soars.\" –\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Pulses with hope… It's a tantalizing novel, one that’s both sharp and touching, and Steven Amsterdam is fast becoming one of our most interesting writers.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Canberra Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A wonderful novel: imaginative, intelligent, empathetic. It's like a cross between \u003ci\u003eThe Corrections \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Slap\u003c\/i\u003e, except without any of the gloom or rage and with the addition of something that may or may not be either a form of magic realism or simply that old staple of the literary art, metaphor.” –\u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Surreal and fantastic… [Amsterdam] develops his own kind of reality that has more than a tinge of fantasy.\" –\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePRAISE FOR \u003ci\u003eTHINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Breathtakingly strange… the kind of book that can inspire us to think differently about the world and entertain us at the same time.” –\u003ci\u003eWashington Post \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Feels like a genuine discovery… Timely and unexpectedly moving.” –The Daily Beast \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Brilliant… Thoughtful, intelligent, savvy… full of horror and hope and compels you to think.”  –\u003ci\u003eRaleigh News \u0026amp; Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Don’t read this book in bed unless you want to stay up past your bedtime thrilled by the discovery of a new writer… [A] stunning read.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/i\u003eSteven Amsterdam is the author of \u003ci\u003eThings We Didn’t See Coming\u003c\/i\u003e, which was longlisted for the \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003eFirst Book Award and won \u003ci\u003eThe Age \u003c\/i\u003eBook of the Year Award, among other honors. A native New Yorker and a nurse, he lives in Melbourne, Australia.Giordana\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt last, they were arriving in the land of normalcy: streetlamps,\u003cbr\u003eparked cars, and hedges. And there was Alek, holding a full\u003cbr\u003eglass of milk and spinning circles in the middle of a moonlit\u003cbr\u003elawn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana had to at least be thankful her mother wasn’t\u003cbr\u003echecking them into a motel this time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe blue hatchback swerved into the driveway, messing up\u003cbr\u003ethe gravel and ending Alek’s little dream. A pile of clothes and\u003cbr\u003ebooks that had divided the backseat between Giordana and\u003cbr\u003eher brother Ben finally fell across her lap.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe watched Alek run across the grass, up the front steps,\u003cbr\u003ecall inside, then race to the head of the driveway. Gleeful in\u003cbr\u003etheir headlights, he hopped up and down in a welcome dance,\u003cbr\u003emiraculously never spilling the milk. He waved the glass over\u003cbr\u003ehis head, toasting their arrival.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the sound of her mother’s last-minute instructions\u003cbr\u003eand her brother’s resolute humming to his headphones, Giordana\u003cbr\u003eheard Alek call out, “Greetings, cousins!” He would make\u003cbr\u003ethis bearable. His Superman underpants stuck out from his\u003cbr\u003ejeans. “They’re here!” he shouted at the house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana unpacked herself from the clothing and sheets\u003cbr\u003eand kitchen crap that jammed the car to capacity, and climbed\u003cbr\u003eout into the still, chirping, suburban air. When he was good\u003cbr\u003eand ready, Ben got out too. They watched their mother paw\u003cbr\u003ethrough the junk to see what she wanted to bring inside first.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana collected the facts. One: Her parents had had\u003cbr\u003ean argument. A shocker. Two: Once again, Dad was left in a\u003cbr\u003ecramped apartment on a street with trucks rolling by in the\u003cbr\u003emorning and rats creeping by at night. Three: The plan was that\u003cbr\u003ethe family, minus Dad, was going to camp out at Aunt Natalie’s\u003cbr\u003etill it all went away. Right. Giordana stayed close to the car.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAunt Natalie’s was the kind of house you would draw with\u003cbr\u003ea crayon if you had just learned squares and triangles. It would\u003cbr\u003ebe home for the next week or two.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBen was yawning as if nothing mattered. Since he’d turned\u003cbr\u003eseventeen and started staying out all night, she knew that if\u003cbr\u003eshe didn’t watch him every minute he could walk off and start\u003cbr\u003eliving his life without them. A mere twenty months younger,\u003cbr\u003eshe wasn’t going to let herself be left behind. But anything was\u003cbr\u003epossible. After all, a woman had written a note to her husband\u003cbr\u003eand driven away with their kids. Tomorrow, Ben might decide\u003cbr\u003eit was his turn to make a sudden exit. Their mother might decide\u003cbr\u003eshe didn’t want to be a mother anymore. Anyone could\u003cbr\u003eleave anyone. Giordana couldn’t think about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAunt Natalie and Uncle Peter finally came out to the front\u003cbr\u003estep and beckoned them toward the front door.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeter called, “You can unpack later. Come.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana gave Ben’s hair a tug to mobilize him. He said,\u003cbr\u003e“Ow,” loudly enough to draw attention to her, but she didn’t\u003cbr\u003ecare because she was the one being mature, trying to get him\u003cbr\u003einside. Each of them was loaded up with a duffel bag and a\u003cbr\u003epillow and pushed toward the house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe better memories of her father, which seemed to be taking\u003cbr\u003eup space in exactly nobody’s mind but hers, would have to\u003cbr\u003ebe put on ice for a while. Going up and saying hello was what\u003cbr\u003ethe situation demanded. Giordana dragged Ben along.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana’s mother had a successful double in life and it\u003cbr\u003ewas Aunt Natalie. She was even more serene tonight than ever,\u003cbr\u003eas if she fed off her sister’s disasters. She was all mellowness,\u003cbr\u003ewearing tan pants and an unwrinkled olive shirt, like she had\u003cbr\u003ebeen at the piano practicing Bach when they drove up. Beside\u003cbr\u003eher on the bench would have been chamomile tea in a flowered\u003cbr\u003ecup. Always just so. Natalie stood on the threshold and spread\u003cbr\u003eher arms wide for a hug.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh Ruth,” she said, pulling the three of them into the hall.\u003cbr\u003e“I am sorry. It’s rotten.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It is. It really is,” Giordana’s mother said, stroking her\u003cbr\u003echildren with pity that she mainly had for herself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUncle Peter provided the male version of the same warm\u003cbr\u003ehug, patting everyone’s back once or twice. He said, “You know\u003cbr\u003eyou’re free to stay as long as you need, if not longer.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor most of the three-hour runaway drive, Giordana had\u003cbr\u003ebegged her mother to turn back. Now, she was glad they were\u003cbr\u003eall crushed together under the hallway light.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek squirmed in and asked his mother, “Can I take them\u003cbr\u003eon the tour?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNatalie shushed. “This is a difficult time. They don’t feel\u003cbr\u003elike playing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek was still bouncing. “Why not? We’re all together.\u003cbr\u003eThat’s what’s important, right?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Please wait,” said Natalie, not loosening her hold on the\u003cbr\u003ethree of them. The embrace was a treatment and she hadn’t\u003cbr\u003efinished applying it yet. Behind her, a corridor of framed family\u003cbr\u003ephotos held out the promise of stability and happy memories\u003cbr\u003ein the future. Off in the front room, Giordana saw the\u003cbr\u003ewhole TV corner. Picture it: A family sitting around, watching\u003cbr\u003emovies together. A quiet night with popcorn and no doors\u003cbr\u003eslamming. See what the right father and a little money in the\u003cbr\u003ebank could produce?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUncle Peter said, “Your choices are the study next to the\u003cbr\u003eboys’ room that has an old chaise longue, or there’s the big pullout\u003cbr\u003esofa downstairs. Who values privacy more than comfort?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Me,” said Ben, with firstborn authority. His decision was\u003cbr\u003eratified without debate. So Giordana would cuddle up with her\u003cbr\u003emother. To be expected.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek wrapped his fingers around his cousins’ wrists to pry\u003cbr\u003ethem away from the huddle. “Let me take you on the tour now!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBen told him, “We took the tour last time. Remember?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Then I’ll change it!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sweetheart,” Natalie said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiven the choice, Giordana would have preferred to stay\u003cbr\u003ewith her mother and hear how she would tell the story of leaving.\u003cbr\u003eIt would all be said differently if Giordana weren’t in the\u003cbr\u003eroom, though. How would Natalie and Peter react? Would her\u003cbr\u003emother see their pity? The responsible thing to do was to go\u003cbr\u003eplay with her cousins.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana fluttered her hand at her face like it was a royal\u003cbr\u003efan and told Alek, “A tour would be divine!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek focused on her. “Okay, tell me which you want: to be\u003cbr\u003eable to fly or be invisible?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Is this part of the tour?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Which do you want? Whatever pops into your head fi rst.\u003cbr\u003eJust say it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Can I walk through things or do I have to slip in and out\u003cbr\u003eof rooms when the door is open?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek thought it over. “No. Okay, yes, you can go through\u003cbr\u003ewalls. But you can’t steal stuff, like from the bank.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“That’s all right. I’ll restrain myself. Invisible.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe gave Ben a glare to make him accompany them. Ben\u003cbr\u003ebent his elbows up and waved his hands sarcastically at his\u003cbr\u003esides. “In that case, I’ll fl y.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek was satisfied. “Good. Follow me.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe tour led directly upstairs to the boys’ bedroom, no\u003cbr\u003esurprise. Sasha was on the upper bunk, reading under a teal\u003cbr\u003eblanket.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sasha’s going through a shy period,” Alek announced.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSasha threw the covers back to shout, “Am not!” and went\u003cbr\u003eback to his book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHaving the audience of real teenagers, it was easy for Alek\u003cbr\u003eto ignore his older brother. In the middle of the room, Alek\u003cbr\u003estopped the tour to study Giordana’s face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana opened her mouth to ask why, but he silenced\u003cbr\u003eher. “I’m pondering,” he said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInspiration came. From a dozen plastic animals and monsters\u003cbr\u003emarching across a dresser, he retrieved a Godzilla and\u003cbr\u003eput it in her hand. “Here.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith that formality out of the way, he got down to the business\u003cbr\u003eof pulling games off a shelf and spilling them onto the\u003cbr\u003ecarpet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana followed Ben’s gaze out the window to the street\u003cbr\u003ebelow. A girl around Giordana’s age was biking in bored figure\u003cbr\u003eeights in the middle of the intersection. No cars around, so\u003cbr\u003ewhy not? At night here, a boy could spin on a front lawn and a\u003cbr\u003egirl could bike in the street. This place was that safe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe rug had a rain-forest design on it and Alek spread out\u003cbr\u003eover the treetop-and-monkey part. The game boards were\u003cbr\u003ealigned so that their corners touched in a triangle. Alek began\u003cbr\u003espouting made-up rules for a whole new game that no one\u003cbr\u003ecould follow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“You’re going to get the pieces all mixed up,” Sasha said,\u003cbr\u003efrom a crack in his covers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek said, “You’re not playing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf anyone was going to rein Alek in, it would have been\u003cbr\u003eGiordana, but she was distracted by the sound of someone sliding\u003cbr\u003ea window open across the street. It was that quiet too. People\u003cbr\u003eliked the leafy streets for a reason, she was sure, but this\u003cbr\u003ewasn’t her. This was not the summer she had planned. Until\u003cbr\u003eshe was back with her friends, she would be marked absent\u003cbr\u003efrom life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSchool had ended three days ago. She had lined up a part-\u003cbr\u003etime job scooping ice cream at Sprinkles four times a week.\u003cbr\u003eThe job was totally lame, but it came with free ice cream whenever\u003cbr\u003ethe manager was out. Furthermore, Thea’s parents had\u003cbr\u003eleft her alone for a week and their apartment was going to be a\u003cbr\u003ebase of operations for sleepovers where no one would sleep,\u003cbr\u003ewhere the blender would be full of rum and fruit juice, and\u003cbr\u003ewhere the mornings would be dominated by fashion extravaganzas,\u003cbr\u003eexclusively sponsored by Thea’s mother. These things\u003cbr\u003ewere facts that no longer mattered. Because now, at the same\u003cbr\u003etime that all of her friends were together, Giordana was standing\u003cbr\u003ethere in Alek and Sasha’s bedroom. Total weakness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInvisibility would have been a relief. Not having to be seen\u003cbr\u003eby anyone as she limped through a dull week or two of suburban\u003cbr\u003esolitude. She could eavesdrop on her mother as she patched\u003cbr\u003ethings up with her father and hear what new short-term fixes\u003cbr\u003ethey were putting on their marriage. What was the bare minimum\u003cbr\u003eher father would have to say this time? She knew most of\u003cbr\u003eher parents’ secrets because their conversations usually happened\u003cbr\u003eat top volume. But if she were out of sight, she could\u003cbr\u003elisten to other people too. What did a regular girl say to a regular\u003cbr\u003eboy?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs she was thinking about walking in a park and overhearing\u003cbr\u003esome dreamy-dippy lovebirds cooing, Ben called her name.\u003cbr\u003eHe looked around the room—right at her, practically—then\u003cbr\u003estuck his head into the hallway and called out, “Giordana,\u003cbr\u003ewhere the hell are you?” He looked back into the room, at Alek.\u003cbr\u003e“Where’d she go?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlek glanced up, but then went right on jumping pieces\u003cbr\u003earound the game boards. He didn’t see her either.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe looked down at her hand and saw nothing, only the\u003cbr\u003efloor beneath her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat Giordana didn’t say was, “I’m right here.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInstead, in two backward steps, she withdrew from the\u003cbr\u003ecenter of the room, staying quiet and close to the wall. There\u003cbr\u003ewas a creak or two, but nobody looked in her direction. Ben\u003cbr\u003ecalled her name again. Hanging on the far wall, there was a\u003cbr\u003ewooden boat with a triangle mirror in its sail. Giordana swiveled\u003cbr\u003eto look at herself and saw only the wall behind her. Her\u003cbr\u003eface flushed, but she couldn’t see it. She was gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom his bed, Sasha was watching the chaos Alek was\u003cbr\u003emaking with disapproval. Giordana waved her arm in front of\u003cbr\u003ehim. He didn’t see her either.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBen shouted out into the hall, “Oh great, you drag me up\u003cbr\u003ehere and then leave me here with this nut.” When he didn’t get\u003cbr\u003ea response, he kneeled down next to Alek, letting him know it\u003cbr\u003ewas the biggest favor in the world. “All right, kid, tell me how\u003cbr\u003ewe play this game of yours.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana took an alley cat step into the corner of the room,\u003cbr\u003ebetween the bunk bed and the wall. She put the Godzilla model\u003cbr\u003edown on the dresser. As she let go of it, it became visible. When\u003cbr\u003eshe picked it up again, it disappeared. She let it go and it appeared.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll right then.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSteering clear of Ben and Alek and all the game pieces,\u003cbr\u003eGiordana left the bedroom. In the hallway, she padded softly\u003cbr\u003ealong the corners of the floorboards to keep them still. Wait: If\u003cbr\u003eher feet were causing the creaks on the floor, then she must\u003cbr\u003ehave body mass. She stopped and tried pressing her forehead\u003cbr\u003eagainst the wall. Her head didn’t proceed through it. A barrier.\u003cbr\u003eStuck in this deadlock with the plaster, she stared at the wallpaper.\u003cbr\u003eRosebushes and gardening tools, a sweet shorthand for a\u003cbr\u003ehappy household. The reds were like fire engines. Uncle Peter\u003cbr\u003eprobably dusted the walls twice a month. Giordana kept her\u003cbr\u003ebreathing steady, concentrating and pushing her head harder.\u003cbr\u003eNo matter how she focused, she couldn’t advance through. Her\u003cbr\u003efather’s permanent sense of outrage surged inside, demanding\u003cbr\u003eshe go back and make Alek tell her exactly how to walk through\u003cbr\u003ewalls. If he gave you this goddamn ability, it had better work two\u003cbr\u003ehundred percent. But this wasn’t a toaster you could throw at the\u003cbr\u003ewoman at customer service.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides, it wasn’t Alek’s trick. She had simply never tried\u003cbr\u003ebefore. With some practice, she would figure it out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiordana went into the bathroom. There was enough light\u003cbr\u003ecoming in from the moon. In the mirror over the sink, she saw\u003cbr\u003ethe reflection of the shower curtain behind her. No Giordana.\u003cbr\u003eInvisible. What if this was forever? Life as she knew it, ended.\u003cbr\u003eShe thought about her face, how her father had once told her\u003cbr\u003eshe smiled with her eyes and should try doing it more often.\u003cbr\u003eShe tried smiling consciously for the mirror. Her features, her\u003cbr\u003ebody came into view. Thank you, whoever you are, she thought.\u003cbr\u003eAs good as it would have been to disappear from surface life\u003cbr\u003efor a while, permanent invisibility would have created logistical\u003cbr\u003eproblems. She imagined her own nothingness again and\u003cbr\u003ewatched herself dissolve in the mirror. This was incredibly excellent.","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304748306661,"sku":"NP9781594632358","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781594632358.jpg?v=1767743887","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/what-the-family-needed-isbn-9781594632358","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}