{"product_id":"the-house-of-grins-donald-levin-9798987792919","title":"The House of Grins","description":"\u003cp\u003eRobert Fitzgerald has a dream. Yearning for the stability of an ideal of family life that has always eluded him, he moves into town fresh from personal tragedy but determined to create a new kind of family unit. Life-affirming and unconventional, resolved to learn from his past mistakes, he buys a rambling old house and sets up an alternative living arrangement. He offers his housemates what he hopes is a source of support and connection free from the traumas and strains of people bound together by blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInto his home--the \"House of Grins\"--come people seeking refuge from the most profound conflicts of contemporary life: Dennis, a solitary young man on the mend from his second nervous breakdown, caught between healing solitude and desperate loneliness, in the grip of an unrequited (and lethal) love; Gene, a self-absorbed former minister now immersed in a New Age quest for the spiritual life, who celebrates freedom but flees from the demands of adult obligations; Martina, forced to choose between her career ambitions and love with a respectable and altogether dull suitor bent on making her a wife and stepmother; and Brooke, an artist struggling with her own confusion and grim family history, who enters a too-intense relationship with Robert that threatens the outwardly-perfect family life she has so carefully crafted for herself and her husband.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the end of the turbulent year they spend together, all of their relationships realign as Robert learns painful lessons about why his dream has eluded him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis compelling, compassionate, and wryly comic new novel explores the urges that drive people out of--and back into--traditional family life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Donald Levin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798987792919\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Poison Toe Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/18\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.68d","brand":"Donald Levin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48801006092543,"sku":"9798987792919","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-house-of-grins-donald-levin-9798987792919","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}