01530nam a22002057a 4500008004100000020001800041040000800059041000800067100002800075245004800103260003900151300002400190520094600214650002301160650003001183650002801213650003701241655002601278655002001304251014b        |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  a9781668062838  ctbs  aeng  aBarnes, Camillaeauthor  aThe usual desire to killc/ Camilla Barnes.  aNew York, NY : bScribner, c2025.  a249 pages ;c22 cm.  aMiranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of decades-old food.

Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda’s mother likes to bring conversation back to “the War,” although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.”

This wry, propulsive story about an eccentric yet endearing family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue. 0aFamilies vFiction 0aParent and childvFiction 0aFamily secretsvFiction 0aInterpersonal relationsvFiction 0aPsychological fiction 0aRomance fiction