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A "Chicago Tribune" Favorite Fiction Book of the YearAn Amazon.com Editors' Pick of the YearA "Newsday" Best Book of the Year "The Coast of Akron" is the story of the gloriously unorthodox, maladjusted, brilliant Haven clan. In the thirty years since artists Lowell and Jenny met, inspired each other, and separated, Lowell ascended to fame while Jenny mothered their talented and now-grown daughter, Merit. In an attempt to answer questions and heal old wounds, Lowell's dyspeptic lover, Fergus, lures the family and guests back to the hallowed faux-Tudor mansion where it all began. It is at this lavish gathering that long-standing secrets, as well as bonds, will be revealed. Adrienne Miller is the literary editor for "Esquire," which won a 2004 National Magazine Award for Fiction. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up around Akron. She lives in New York City. This is her first novel. A "Chicago Tribune" Best Book of the Year Adrienne Miller, in her first novel, introduces us to the unforgettable Haven family of Akron, Ohio. This is not your typical Midwestern family, and Lowell Haven os a most unusual patriarch. He's a seducer, a wannabe aristocrat, and a liar. Jenny, his former wife, was a brilliant artist, but today is a broken woman with a secret. In the thirty years since Lowell and Jenny met, Lowell has become a world-famous artist, known for portraits of his favorite subject--himself. But five years ago, Lowell mysteriously stopped painting, and the world now demands to know: Why has Lowell Haven abandoned his art? The answer is Merit, Lowell and Jenny's daughter, who is running as fast as she can from her family. Fergus--Lowell's partner, Jenny's ex-best friend, and drama queen extraordinaire--dreams of luring Merit home to the sixty-five-room faux-Tudor mansion where he lives with Lowell. A lavish party for the Midwestern glitterati is the perfect excuse. But his delusions of grandeur loom over the gathering, and his decision to include a certain guest invites disaster. "Adrienne Miller's enormous talent is evident on every page . . . Miller] has written a big book, a novel that's smart and confident and juicy, and in doing so, she has pulled off an impressive artistic feat."--Curtis Sittenfeld, "The Washington Post " "Miller's handling of this crew is a joy, the characters revealing themselves through a clever and deftly synchronized plot and unflaggingly witty prose . . . Miller] turns out to be an acute social critic and an accomplished psychologist, whose narrative skills carry us buoyantly from chapter to chapter."--"The Boston Globe" "When Miller lights the narrative fuse, her readers wait for the fireworks with heart-pounding giddiness . . . Yet, oddly enough, it isn't the zany plot that provides the most excitement. Instead, the pyrotechnics come from Miller's enormous wit and linguistic creativity."--"The New York Times Book Review" "Miller can write, and everything about Merit's fairly banal life--her vexing marriage, her erratic driving, her job selling ad space for Ohio--is described with hilarity and complexity."--"The New Yorker" ""The Coast of Akron" is a joy to read and decipher."--"The Plain Dealer" (Cleveland) "Splendidly realized characters . . . Miller is a gifted ventriloquist . . . Imaginative, refreshingly eccentric, and, at time, strangely moving, this is truly a book whose characters stay with you long after you put them back on the shelf--whether at page 70, after the first evening of reading, or at page 390, where "The Coast of Akron" reaches its memorable and poetic conclusion."--"Chicago Tribune" "As a farce, the book could not be more bizarre, or more dead-on-target . . . The novel this one most resembles is Don DeLillo's classic "White Noise." Like the Gladneys of DeLillo's book, the family in this lively debut has a slaphappy giddiness that seems almost to come from something in the air.""--The Independent" (London) "How is "The Coast of Akron" unlike your typical debut? Let me count the ways. It's campy, complicated, and most unnervingly professional, as though Miller had been knocking out this stuff for years."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review" " The novel] overflows with zinging sentences, fresh imagery, unexpected turns of phrase, and more eccentricities than the loony-tunes family it chronicles . . . Beneath the spun-sugar absurdity of "The Coast of Akron" is a terrifically compelling and original tale about art, gender, ownership, and indentity . . . Miller] writes a mean sentence, deftly deploys some searing imagery, and tackles everything from self-abnegation to artistic inspiration."--"Salon" "Adrienne Miller is one of the wittiest and most humane writers we have, bringing to mind at once Dorothy Parker, Mary McCarthy, and M. F. K. Fisher."--Dave Eggers "Adrienne Miller has built a deliciously absurd tale around lies and those who live them."--"The Denver Post" ""The Coast of Akron" examines celebrity, identity, and self-deception, while quietly lampooning the ludicrously self-referential nature of art history . . . Miller's dark, compelling, often laught-out-loud funny debut would be an achievement even for a seasoned pro."--"Nylon" "A debut novel that gives the heartland its fictional due. Her Akron is a place of flamboyant personalities, grand delusions, and poisonous ambition. Adrienne Miller . . . has created a big, brashly ambitious novel that does not deal in half-measures."--"The Village Voice" "Dare I say it--this book has some real muscle to it . . . Tender, intelligent, audacious, and packing a serious wallop, "The Coast of Akron" will be around a long, long time."--Colum McCann, author of "Dancer" "An entertaining tale . . . an engaging read."--"The Philadelphia Inquirer" " Miller] can wring laughs out of an ill-advised sexual encounter or make a reader cringe with the details of a dinner party gone awry."--"The Columbus Dispatch" "Of course, Akron has no coast, but it does have a blimp, and a lot of