Freedom: A Novel

"Freedom," by bestselling author Jonathan Franzen, is a masterful novel about contemporary love and marriage, brilliantly exploring the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage desire, the shaken compromises of middle age, the consequences of suburban sprawl, and the heavy weight of empire. Patty and Walter Berglund were pioneers in old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, engaged parents, and the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Yet now, in the new millennium, they have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter, once an environmental lawyer, taken a job with Big Coal? Most startling of all, why has Patty, the perfect neighbor, transformed into the local Fury? Patty and Walter Berglund are unforgettable characters, and their mistakes and joys, as they struggle to navigate an increasingly confusing world, have become touchstones of contemporary American reality.