Praise for The Gunners 1 of 50 Books We Can''t Wait to Read in 2018 ( NYLON ) Named a Spring 2018 Release Our Bookshelves Can''t Wait for ( Southern Living ) 1 of 60 Books We Can''t Wait to Read in 2018 ( Huffington Post ) One of the Most Anticipated Fiction Books of 2018 ( Chicago Review of Books ) 1 of 20 Books PureWow Can''t Wait to Read in 2018 1 of 101 Books to get excited about in 2018 (BookRiot) 1 of 30 Biggest Book Club Books Coming in 2018 (BookBub) 1 of My Top 5 Most Anticipated Reads of 2018 (PatienceRandle.com) 1 of the Most Anticipated New Releases of 2018 (Reading Women) A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection "With The Gunners , Rebecca Kauffman enters the grand tradition of friendship novels by understanding they are just another type of love story, full of as much pain and exhilaration as any classic romance." -- NYLON , 1 of 50 Books We Can''t Wait to Read in 2018 "A wonderful new novel." -- Southern Living , "Our Bookshelves Can''t Wait for These Spring 2018 Releases" "Perceptive, funny, and endearing . Reminiscent of The Big Chill and St. Elmo''s Fire , this remarkable novel is just as satisfying and provides readers with an entire cast of characters who will feel like old friends upon finishing." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Kauffman has created vivid and compelling characters struggling with what is in some ways the most universal dilemma: how to grow up. Mikey especially is mature and thoughtful but not at all precious; and the boisterous, hilarious Alice is charming despite her best efforts to behave otherwise.
In fluid prose, Kauffman lays bare the lessons of youth and truth. A layered and loving bildungsroman of friendship." -- Kirkus Reviews "Novels about friendships are the new fad but trust me when I tell you that this one is truly superlative. A gracefully endearing story which delves deeply into the nature of childhood friendship while also shining a light on chronic illness and LGTBQ rights." -- Chicago Review of Books , The Most Anticipated Fiction Books of 2018 "A little bit like The Big Chill , Kauffman''s ( Another Place You''ve Never Been , 2016) quiet and deep second novel reconciles the responsibilities we carry and the secrets we keep with the outsize pleasure of being known and loved by a chosen family." -- Booklist "I recommend you read every single thing Rebecca Kauffman writes--start with this beautiful novel, and start now." --Julie Buntin, author of Marlena "Kauffman''s prose is restrained in a way that causes it to actually vibrate in places, and her details are so richly observed they feel like gems, impossible things mined from deep under the earth. Funny, raw, and deeply elegant, The Gunners is ultimately a meditation on friendship, that least examined, most mysterious form of love, perhaps more sacred for its incompleteness, for the ways we can never fool ourselves completely into believing we truly know one another.
" --Rufi Thorpe, author of Dear Fang, with Love and The Girls from Corona del Mar " The Gunners explores what it means to have people crawl into your heart and settle in for a lifetime. In this lovely, truthful novel of six people who have been friends since childhood, Rebecca Kauffman strips enduring love of all its usual romantic costumery, and shows us how it actually works." --Martha Woodroof, author of Small Blessings "I inhaled The Gunners in a single sitting, because I couldn''t stand to be away from it once I started it. Rebecca Kauffman''s brilliantly rendered story of six childhood friends tells the hard truth about human love--what it seems to be from far away, and what it really is up close--boldly, with compassion and warmth and humor." --Kayla Rae Whitaker, author of The Animators " The Gunners follows a group of friends from their close-knit childhood in working class Buffalo, New York, to their disparate midthirties. Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam are brought together again by the sudden suicide of fellow "Gunner" Sally who, as a teenager, abruptly abandoned the group with little explanation. After the funeral, the group, reunited for the first time in a decade, spend a drunken evening grieving, reminiscing, confiding, consoling, and most importantly, just being with one another, while trying to understand the mysterious motivations of Sally. Sharp, bighearted, and rich with specific detail, the story ticks every box in a bildungsroman you could hope for leaving readers with that familiar warm and tight-throated nostalgia you feel when rediscovering a shoe box of old photos from high school.
Highly readable and certainly a good companion for a spring break getaway." --Katelyn O''brien, Square Books (Oxford, MS) "There''s a special glue that holds a group together. But sometimes that glue dissolves and releases individuals to melt away into their own worlds. Such was the glue of the Gunners and such was the outcome when one of the group of youngsters, now teenagers, suddenly, for no apparent reason, removed herself from their midst. But Mikey was left alone with a secret that would follow him into his later years. It was not something which should have been a secret, you understand, but a secret it was. But he''s not the only one keeping something to himself. When Sally commits suicide, the Gunners reunite, but no one knows if all the secrets she was carrying about their group will emerge.
It''s time to face the truth and reach for forgiveness. My heart went out to Mikey from page one. This stand-out novel is an engrossing story of friendship and the consequences of trying to hide from life, as well as a memorable offering from a very good writer." --Linda Bond, Auntie''s Bookstore (Spokane, WA) Praise for Another Place You''ve Never Been Longlisted for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize "Fans of the vignette style of Richard Linklater''s "Boyhood" might enjoy Rebecca Kauffman''s take on the roman clef . It''s an inventive debut that''s already been compared to Jennifer Egan''s A Visit from the Goon Squad and from an indie press, to boot!" -- Huffington Post "[A] wonderful debut. Watching how these characters intersect is incredibly satisfying. In clear and vivid prose, Kauffman potently depicts lonely and isolated lives, marked by rash decisions made in the hope of finding connection. By the end of the novel, the pieces of the puzzle that is Tracy''s life fit together, her disappointments as much a part of her as her small victories, resulting in an undeniably moving and emotionally true portrayal of the kitchen sink of human experience.
" -- Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review) "Kauffman''s compassion for her lonely characters is evident." -- Kirkus Reviews "Kauffman''s immediately involving novel-in-stories, delivered in crisp language and with a strong sense of the characters surrounding her." -- Library Journal "Kauffman''s prose is spare and vivid. She knows just the right details to bring a place or a person to life. It''s fun to anticipate the connections among characters from story to story, and to watch Tracy realize how the relationship with her father has colored her choices. Another Place You''ve Never Been is a moving, elegantly constructed tribute to human frailty and loss, and to our stubborn insistence on striving for human connection despite a slew of obstacles. In the character of Tracy, Kauffman has given us a fascinating portrait of a modern, tragic heroine, and a lens into our own darkest, most hopeful places." -- Fiction Advocate "Through the eyes of the characters in these stories--many tragic but making the best of what they have--we glimpse Kauffman''s deep and abiding empathy.
" -- Read it Forward , Favorite Read for October " Another Place You''ve Never Been is a gorgeous, witty novel that reminded me of Olive Kitteridge . if Olive had been a down-on-her-luck waitress dreaming of love in upstate New York. I loved this kindhearted, beautiful book." --Amanda Ward, author of The Same Sky "In this mesmerizing novel, composed of short, powerful, interlocking stories, Rebecca Kauffman gives us a wide cast of characters struggling to find happiness, and maybe even transcendence, in a harsh landscape. At the center of it all is Tracy, a woman fighting against the odds, one of the most complex and memorable figures to appear in recent American fiction. Clear-eyed, witty, and dazzlingly inventive, this is a novel that disturbs and delights. An extraordinary debut." --Brian Morton, author of Florence Gordon "Kauffman''s writing is intentional.
The way she uses her main character, Tracy, as a peripheral character in some chapters is brilliant. We all have aspects of Tracy in our own character, or at least know a Tracy: neglected, desperate, and perpetually human. I can''t say I''ve read anything quite so similar. This novel is gritty, exposed, American, inviting, and personal. Dive in, but be wary of the water." --Staff Pick at Changing Hands Bookstore, Arizona "Part of the fun of reading, I find, can be finding the title in the story. I won''t give it away, but I was surprised by the meaning when it showed up. Kauffman''s interlinked stories have some of the same characters, but different characters are featured in each story.
Down on their luck, hard scrabble lives for the most part, some characters fortunes rise and fall, but they all car.