Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Usual Desire to Kill

The Usual Desire to Kill

Barnes, Camilla

Paperback

General FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $18.00

ISBN10: 1668062852
ISBN13: 9781668062852
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: Apr 21 2026
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.20 Depth: 7.90
Language: English
A droll, psychologically astute...unexpected...very funny (Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air) and moving portrait of a long-married couple, seen through the eyes of their wickedly observant daughter.Miranda's parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of decades-old food. Miranda's father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda's mother likes to bring conversation back to the War, although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports the usual desire to kill. This wry, propulsive story about an eccentric yet endearing family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.

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