Strong Motion

Strong Motion
Jonathan Franzen

Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of strange happenings – earthquakes strike the city, and the first one kills his grandmother. During a bitter feud over the inheritance Louis falls in love with Renée Seitchek, a passionate and brilliant seismologist, whose discoveries about the origin of the earthquakes complicate everything.

Jonathan Franzen

Strong Motion

Copyright (#ulink_a527af66-24e3-5286-aada-e51c6831dba3)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.4thEstate.co.uk (http://www.4thEstate.co.uk)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2017

Copyright © Jonathan Franzen 1992

Cover design and illustration by Richard Bravery

Jonathan Franzen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint lyrics from the following songs: ‘I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass’, words & music by Nick Lowe, Andrew Bodnar & Stephen Goulding, BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, a BMG Company; ‘Marie Provost’, words & music by Nick Lowe, BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, a BMG Company; ‘See No Evil’ (T. Verlaine), courtesy Hal Leonard Corporation.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9781841157498

Ebook Edition © November 2017 ISBN: 9780007383238

Version: 2017-11-27

Praise (#ulink_d93605ef-59b6-5e0d-8c61-43b0f9e6ca05)

From the reviews of Strong Motion:

‘An affirmation of Mr Franzen’s fierce imagination and distinctive seriocomic voice’

New York Times Book Review

‘Ingeniously put together … His ear for American vernacular is flawless … His gift for description has a kinetic immediacy’

Seattle Times

‘Lyrical, dramatic and, above all, fearless … We’re in the presence of a great American moralist in the tradition of Dreiser, Twain, or Sinclair Lewis’

Philadelphia Inquirer

‘By sheer force of his imaginative writing and his unsheathed views of American life, Mr Franzen succeeds in joining together a love story, a family story, and a corporate-cum-environmental story … Distinctly original’

New York Times

‘Heartwrenchingly real characters … perfect pitch … Franzen’s almost-Boston is shimmeringly alive and palpable’

San Diego Union-Tribune

‘A young writer of exceptional skill and vision … insightful … dazzling to behold … a brave author, not afraid to take tremendous risks’

Orlando Sentinel

‘Complicated and absorbing with a fair mix of intrigue, social commentary, and humor laced with a tinge of malice’

Washington Times

‘With this work, Franzen confidently assumes a position as one of the brightest lights of American letters … Part thriller, part comedy of manners, Strong Motion is full of suspense’

Cleveland Plain Dealer

‘[Franzen] is a writer of almost frightening talent and promise’

Miami Herald

Dedication (#ulink_fdebafee-92ea-54a9-9e8f-72584af81354)

For Valerie

Epigraph (#ulink_08af90f9-0fc4-589c-b52f-3ba98ff321f8)

A rock was sticking out of the water, jagged and pointed, covered with moss—a remnant of the Ice Age and of the glacier that had once gouged out this basin in the earth. It had withstood the rains, the snows, the frost, the heat. It was afraid of no one. It did not need redemption, it had already been redeemed.

—I. B. SINGER

Contents

Cover (#u4e8e4a29-46ad-5573-9723-6fc4f13a6478)

Title Page (#ud92c668a-9698-58ec-b03d-2f7a333f877a)

Copyright (#u7e572b1c-9acf-5ec0-bb3d-62d55cb8b3a2)

Praise (#u44869d37-f18b-5a77-ac02-6c09f24c9669)

Dedication (#u91e29791-f329-5d02-8c55-f77a730e5b64)

Epigraph (#ua237f067-df1b-5270-bf25-927a8d3bd2d0)