The Lonely Polygamist

'A wry, sympathetic portrait of a spectacularly dysfunctional family' New Yorker 
From the author of the legendary novel The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint.

Udall demonstrates a wonderful ability to move the reader one way or the other.  He is a brilliant comic writer, and this novel is full of laugh-out-loud moments and running jokes.  But he is equally adept at heartbreaking tragedy.  Combining the two superbly here, he has recreated the terrible wonder and wonderful terror of family life, in a novel that's not larger than life, but just as large, as difficult, as funny and as poignant as everyday life itself

It's funny, but not simply a comic noel; Udall has some wonderful observations about the dynamics of family life

An exceptional tale of an exceptional family.

A dark, funny and insightful probe into the ways we can be lonely even when surrounded

Memorable... Shining above all in this joyful celebration of communal living is Rusty, the misfit whose explosive fate will have profound effects on the whole, enormous family.

Some people might be saying the latest David Mitchell book or the most recent Martin Amis, but for me, so far, The Lonely Polygamist is the novel of 2010

Udall, author of the well regarded The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, posesses a comic touch that is occassionally reminiscent of Richard Russo or John Irving. And while his style is usually as effortlessly plain-spoken as the people he depicts, he is capable of impressive rhetorical flights

Udall is the real thing: a writer with an instinctive feel for the human condition worthy of Steinbeck or Twain

At every turn, Udall plays with his readers' expectations of believers and non-believers, husbands and wives...That this longish book is kept largely aloft by a structure of humorous conceits is an indication of the author's strengths as a storyteller.

Brady Udall is the author of Letting Loose the Hounds, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, an international bestseller, and the newly released The Lonely Polygamist. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Playboy, GQ and Esquire, and his stories and essays have been featured on National Public Radio's This American Life. He teaches in the MFA program at Boise State University, and lives in Boise, Idaho and Teasdale, Utah with his wife and children. 
 
His great-great grandfather, David King Udall, was a polygamist. His second wife, Ida Hunt Udall, was his great-great grandmother.

Golden Richards is a normal dad. But with four wives and twenty eight children there just isn't enough of him to go around. Unbeknownst to his wives, Golden has taken a construction job on a Nevada brothel. Lying to cover his tracks, beset by familial rivalry on all sides, he seeks relief in the arms of his boss's wife.To put it simply this is the story of a polygamist who has an affair. But there is much more to it than that. Generous, wise and moving The Lonely Polygamist is a bittersweet tale of family, love and belonging.

Brady Udall

Original and sympathetic... Like John Iriving he draws credible, emotionally engaging characters, who find themselves afflicted by the oddest and most unexpected of mishaps... One of those rare novels that is so touching and so odd, you couldn't make it up

One of the most enjoyable reads of the year

Peopled with beautifully-drawn characters and full of colour, drama and pathos, this is a superb first novel

If this was a film it would be made by the Coen brothers. Quirky, charming and very funny

Very accomplished... Edgar is a brilliant creation

'A wild and wondrous tale... I was utterly charmed by it'

'A story that tears at you and calls you back to it... There is also a human heart beating in here, as beautiful and profound as your own'

Half Apache and mostly orphaned, the adventures of Edgar Presley Mint begin on an Arizona reservation at the age of seven, when the mailman's jeep accidentally runs over his head. 
 
Shunted from the hospital to a reform school to a Mormon foster family, comedy and trouble accompany Edgar - the irresistible innocent who never truly loses heart, and whose quest for the mailman leads him to an unexpected home. 
 
This riveting picaresque novel has become an international best-seller.

Brady Udall

Praise for The Miracle Life Of Edgar Mint

Original and sympathetic... Like John Iriving he draws credible, emotionally engaging characters, who find themselves afflicted by the oddest and most unexpected of mishaps... One of those rare novels that is so tou ...

One of the most enjoyable reads of the year

Peopled with beautifully-drawn characters and full of colour, drama and pathos, this is a superb first novel

Original and sympathetic... Like John Iriving he draws credible, emotionally engaging characters, who find themselves afflicted by the oddest and most unexpected of mishaps... One of those rare novels that is so tou ...

One of the most enjoyable reads of the year

Peopled with beautifully-drawn characters and full of colour, drama and pathos, this is a superb first novel

Original and sympathetic... Like John Iriving he draws credible, emotionally engaging characters, who find themselves afflicted by the oddest and most unexpected of mishaps... One of those rare novels that is so tou ...

One of the most enjoyable reads of the year

Peopled with beautifully-drawn characters and full of colour, drama and pathos, this is a superb first novel

Books by Brady Udall

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