Fulfillment (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780593802861)

Set in Paducah, Kentucky, Lee Cole's follow-up to Groundskeeping ("An exacting, beautifully textured debut novel . . . presages a major career"--The New York Times Book Review) is a powerful, page-turning story of two half brothers navigating the complexities of class and privilege in the American South

Fulfillment tells the story of two half brothers--Joel, a successful academic and author, whose marriage is in deep trouble, and his younger sibling Emmett, paralyzed by indecision and working on a factory assembly line--who find themselves at their family home in Kentucky and upend each other's lives in devasting ways.

Between them is Alice, Emmett's wife, a wry, passionate young woman who is being slowly asphyxiated by domestic tedium, and whose longing collides with Emmett's hunger for connection and desire to escape a sense of burgeoning failure and shame. As the chemistry between them escalates, the family is plunged into a violent crucible, each character brought to a precipice of immutable catastrophe.

Incisive, poignant, gorgeously written, Lee Cole has written a haunting novel about class, privilege, brotherhood, and the American south, a book that asks whether people can change, and at what cost, and what it takes to build a life of fulfillment and meaning.

Author: Lee Cole
ISBN-10: 0593802861
ISBN-13: 9780593802861
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 06/17/2025
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.39lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.94d