Whitaker has written a sprawling, extravagantly intelligent novel about people quietly breaking free from constraints marital, gender, class Superb. Like a blue-collar Franzen novel. -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review This is the novel Ive been missing: a sprawling, emotional and true family saga. I picked it up knowing nothing about it and fell completely in love with the characters, the story, the setting. All of it. Its damn near perfect. -- Ayelet Waldman, New York Times bestselling author of Love and Treasure My favourite thing about Returns and Exchanges is its different, distinctive, absolutely packed with characters, relationships, times, and places not often told. But Kayla Rae Whitakers singular story is also timely and telling, sprawling and resonant, familiar, and grand. Its no small thing to craft a family saga that somehow feels new and ageless all at once, but Whitaker manages it with verve and grace. -- Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is and Family Family Kayla Rae Whitaker is one of contemporary fictions most astute, empathetic chroniclers of all the messy complexities that make us human. With Returns and Exchanges, she deftly explores the price of ambition, the perils of self-discovery, and the ways in which one family grapples with the weight of its own success. Its a novel brimming with truth and humour, and with a heart so strong you can hear it beat on the page. -- Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding Ambitious and engrossing, a weekend read, written with sympathy, insight, humour, and style. -- Susan Rieger, author of Like Mother, Like Mother Whitaker expertly juggles the expansive cast of characters and elicits sympathy for all of them even when they exhibit the worst parts of themselves. [ Returns and Exchanges] is an openhearted epic of the American dream and the bargains struck to achieve it. -- Publishers Weekly, starred review Wildly ambitious and deeply satisfying, Returns and Exchanges is a new kind of great American novel. Kayla Rae Whitaker deftly animates the ambitions and desires of a family on the rise, painting each character with a hard-eyed compassion that makes it impossible not to root for all of them, even as they break each others hearts again and again. This novel is smart, funny, loving, and utterly beautiful. I didnt want it to end. -- Erin O. White, author of Like Family In Returns and Exchanges, the Baker-Taylors discover what it truly takes to build and preserve a legacy not just in business, but in love. A tender, funny, and sharply observed story about the complicated promise of the American Dream and how to hold a family together. -- Heather Aimee ONeill, author of The Irish Goodbye Whitaker (The Animators) writes a deeply compelling novel that follows the Taylors over two generations. Hand to readers who have an interest in family stories, strong women, and lesbian and gay fiction. -- Library Journal, starred review With engaging characters and immersive prose, Whitaker shows readers both an intimate family portrait and a lesson in the perils of greed, and by the books thoughtful, softly bittersweet ending, a commentary on humanitys determination to make beauty despite societys rejection of it. -- Booklist, starred review Praise for The Animators
A wildly original novel that pulses with heart and truth. That this powerful exploration of friendship, desire, ambition and secrets manages to be ebullient, gripping, heartbreaking, and deeply, deeply funny is a testament to Whitakers formidable gifts. I was so sorry to reach the final page and Sharon and Mel will stay with me for a very long time. -- Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest Praise for The Animators
An engrossing, exuberant ride through all the territories of love familial, romantic, sexual, love of friends, and, perhaps above all, white-hot passion for the art you were born to make I wish Id written The Animators. -- Emma Donoghue, author of Room and The Wonder Praise for The Animators
The Animators is a heartbreakingly beautiful, sharply funny, arrestingly unforgettable novel about love and genius, the powerful obsessiveness of artistic creation, and the equally powerful undertow of the past. Kayla Rae Whitaker writes like her head is on fire. -- Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner Awardwinning author of The Great Man Praise for The Animators
The Animators crackles with intelligence; Whitakers remarkable ear for dialogue reads as if Aaron Sorkin wrote an episode of Girls. She expertly captures the dynamic that exists between women when theyre alone with each other, when performative parts of femininity dissolve. -- Sian Cain * The Guardian * Praise for The Animators
Unusual and appealing The Animators covers familiar debut-novel territory: the search for identity, the desire for success, the bewildering experiences of small-town misfits leaving home for the bright lights of New York City. But Whitaker turns these motifs on their heads simply by changing the direction of the road and populating it with women. * The New York Times Book Review *
