HEFT
Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career - if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel's mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur's. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene's unexpected phone call to Arthur - a plea for help - that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel's own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. Like Elizabeth McCracken's The Giant's House, Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.
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PRAISE FOR HEFT
"Moore's characters are lovingly drawn . . . A truly original voice."
THE NEW YORKER
"Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication."
MARY GORDON
"A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices."
COLUM MCCAM
"Beautiful . . . Stunningly sad and heroically hopeful."
O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
"Heft achieves real poignancy . . . the warmth, the humanity and the hope in this novel make it compelling and pleasurable."
THE WASHINGTON POST
"Few novelists of recent memory have put our bleak isolation into words as clearly as Liz Moore does in her new novel."
THE SAN FRANSISCO CHRONICLE
"Moore's writing is clear, persuasive, and totally engaging, bringing her characters to life in all their sweet, quirky glory . . . Heft is about transformation and about accepting that the agent of change can come from the most unlikely source."
THE BOSTON GLOBE
"Tender, thoughtful."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Like its characters' hearts, Heft is full of grace. It's a beautifully written and very moving novel."
THE IRISH TIMES
"This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal-she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it."
RUSSELL BANKS
"Moore's lovely novel (after The Words of Every Song) is about overcoming shame and loneliness and learning to connect. It is life-affirming, but never sappy."
LIBRARY JOURNAL
"An insightful pageturner."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY